Silent the Universe
by Souffle Rosetti
Summary: The stars are going out, one by one, and yet only few notice. One Uzumaki Naruto will make the rest of the world realize that the universe is becoming silent, no matter how many times he has to blow them up. NarutoNanoha crossover.
1. The Beast

Welcome to the second Naruto/Nanoha fanfic that I currently know of. This is my first official fic, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Nantoka and Naruto both belong to their respective owners, and this is just a sad tribute to their work. Except you, Kishimoto, damn you really let yourself go.

* * *

Looking up, the man sighed. He stood atop the Hokage's tower, perched on a pillar, looking over his village.

His village. Konohagakure has been here for a relatively short time, and yet it grew incredibly quickly. In every direction barring the monument, he could see stores, houses, and small parks for kilometers. It was easily one of the largest of the 'hidden' villages. From here, the main walls of the village looked like long, small sticks in the distance. And yet, something towered over those.

Something that he could feel from even here.

A gigantic, nine-tailed fox loomed over the village like a well-used guillotine, awaiting it's next victim. The air was positively thick with killing intent.

The man frowned. There was something completely wrong with that picture.

Konohagakure was indeed a very young hidden village, for a very good reason. The Kitsune of Nine Tails was the land of fire's protector, and had allowed no humans into it's lush forests. Not until the First Hokage and his brother, who would become the Second Hokage, came to it in hopes of starting a new village.

Apparently, they had obviously gained the Kitsune's trust and were allowed to build their village here. And for years, under it's watchful yet hidden eye, the village grew.

He remembered when he met the Kyuubi to become the Fourth Hokage. It was a deeply hidden secret that, in order to become the Hokage, you had to have the Kyuubi's approval. Chuckling in remembrance, he remembered almost passing out in fright when he saw the huge, noble creature.

He frowned again, that which was simply walking over Konoha's walls, leaving death and destruction in her wake, was not what he met.

He looked up at the red-tainted night sky. He slowly broke an old promise to never cry, as he held an infant in his arms. He would have to do this, to someone he found a friend. He would have to do this, to his son.

He wiped his eyes with his free hand. Looking back up, he resolved himself to his task.

"Less stars, again tonight."

"Hmm, gaki, even now you say such silly things..."

"Heh, ero-sennin, even after so long, you never believed me?"

"Who would believe such a ridiculous thing?"

"Maa, I guess that is true... however, be sure to give him my journals, would you?"

The man next to him grinned, his large mane of white hair shifting ever so slightly. "Sure. I'll miss you brat.."

"Same here, ero-sennin."

Both men disappeared soundlessly in a whirl of leaves.

And The land of fire would never be the same again.

* * *

7 years later

A young, blond boy looked up at the sky. He shivered in the late October night, his breath appearing in front of him. He was definitely inappropriately dressed.

The sky always seemed a little darker every night. When he asked someone, they just ignored him, or scoffed at him.

But every night he looked at the sky when possible, and wondered why the stars were slowly, but surely disappearing. He watched another softly flare up before winking out.

He even told funny-hat ojii-san, and even though he said it was silly, he had a weird look on his face.

He sneezed. They kicked him out of the orphanage again, but he grinned. In just a short year, he'd be able to go to the Ninja Academy!

Ojii-san had taken him out for his birthday. It was the bestest birthday he could remember! They had ramen, clearly a food from heaven that was made for him, and went to many places in Konoha that he didn't even know were there! And then he sat him down for a chat.

He told him about what he did every day. That he was someone who protected the entire village(even though he was so old) and that he cared about every single person. He told him about how he was a Ninja, and the strongest Ninja was the Hokage.

Uzumaki Naruto looked at him in awe. He of sooo many wrinkles was the strongest, and was his best friend too! Naruto immediately said that he wanted to be just like him.

At that point, he had asked him, "Ahh, you want to be Hokage, hm?" Naruto had nodded eagerly, "Being Hokage is more than strength. More than courage, more than determination, more than intelligence. It is more than caring, more than protection. It is about the sum of those parts in a single man or woman, There are many trials. Many have tried to become Hokage, and yet there are have only been 4 in our history. Four out of a countless number of people who tried. Do you know why, Naruto?" Naruto looked up at his mentor in awe, but shook his head. the Hokage chuckled, "That is something, you will learn as you grow up." he said.

Naruto immediately decided that he would become Hokage. He looked up and smiled, even as the stars disappeared on him, he promised to them. "I'll become the Hokage, and I'll protect this village!" he shouted.

He sneezed again. Sniffling, maybe he should find some form of shelter.

He walked for a while, Konoha's streets were thankfully a bit deserted as he looked for somewhere to rest for the night. It wouldn't be the first time, but he always had to find a new place each time.

He ducked into an alley, and yawned as he found a cardboard box, Large enough infact to sleep under, he turned it over.

An odd book came out of it.

Naruto blinked. He couldn't take his eyes off of it. The book was just.. Odd. It almost seemed to glow in the dark alley.

It was wrapped in small chains, with no visible lock holding them in place. The book was torn, dirty, and in very bad shape. What looked like a gold cross was on it's front cover, he noticed.

Naruto, being far too curious, picked the book up.

He gasped softly, clutching his chest as he too glowed. However, he glowed a red, bloody color that lit up the alley. The book, that he dropped in pain, floated up, stretching it's binds before bursting open, the chains that held it closed disappearing.

It opened. It flipped through it's pages, some with text on it. Most were blank and many of them were torn.

_"Releasing Seal"_

The book slammed shut, and he faintly noticed that the ground stopped shaking.

Naruto collapsed, panting. He wasn't in any pain still, but he noticed that he had a strange, reddish glow as he looked down at his hands.

The sound of pages flipping made him look up again. The book had opened again, but this time it was on some blank page.

_"Linking program executed. Repair program.. operating at 3. Requesting mana. Projection program... disabled. Weapons program... disabled."_

Naruto only then realized that it was speaking in some odd language that he never heard before. And yet.. he understood it. It continued to rattle off something about programs and parts.

However that didn't mean that he _understood_ it. What the heck was a program?

Wait a second.

"WHY IS A BOOK SPEAKING?!" He screamed, backing up to the alley wall, pointing at it.

"QUIET DOWN YOU PUNK!" was a shout that came from.. somewhere, before a window shut quite violently. Naruto didn't notice, just staring at the book in fright. Slowly, he inched out the alley.

_"Knights program...13 repaired. Protection progra..."_ The book trailed off as it realized that it wasn't speaking to anyone anymore.

If it could, it would have sighed.

Naruto hauled ass to the Hokage's tower. Before he could get inside it however, he collided with someone, who caught him before he could fall.

"Oi, brat.. where are you going this time at night?" said a feminine voice.

Naruto shook his head, looking up into a white porcelain mask. He blinked, but then started talking at a speed that she couldn't understand.

Uzuki Yuugao was somewhat new to the ANBU. However, among all of them, there was one simple, unwritten rule. 'Respect the Kyuubi-brat, even if you don't like him'. Some didn't like him, and held the respect. Those that didn't respect him found themselves respecting him later on. Unlike villagers, you had to have a level head to be in the ANBU at all.

So, when Naruto looked up at her with red, slitted eyes that just screamed fright at her, she frowned. What had scared the kid so badly?

"_Master, please do not leave while i give my report."_

It was quite understandable when Yuugao decided to quickly cut whoever just spoke in an odd language, from behind her.

Thankfully for the book, she was aiming at cutting an arm off, and missed it completely.

She stared at the faintly glowing book.

"... the hell?"

_"Protection programs... 13. Of all the protection programs available, only the Basic Barrier Jacket is available."_

Uzuki Yuugao stared. It wasn't exactly everyday you wind up hearing a book speak in an odd language.

Naruto hit behind her, peeking out at the book. The girl with the mask had done some funny thing with her hands and said "Kai' several times for some reason. She had long sheathed her blade once she found out that she wasn't exactly under attack.

"Brat..." "Hey i'm not a brat-" "... whatever. What is this thing?"

Naruto blinked, "I don't know... why don't you ask it?" He said, staying firmly behind her.

Yuugao sighed, 'Well, this takes the cake.' "Hmm, Book-san... what are you?"

_"...programs, disabled. Support programs, 5. Area Search is the only program available. Summoning programs... disabled.."_

"Lets just go to the Hokage..."

_"74 of parts are damaged, however none are in need of replacement.."_ The book calmy said, flipping pages as it followed to two into the tower.

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage, currently in a losing battle against his daily enemy, didn't look up as he looked over and signed documents on the desk.

He sighed as his door was knocked, but didn't look up, "Come in." he said, putting another pile of work into his out-box. The stack on it was now, finally, larger than the in-box stack, and he grinned in victory.

It would be perfectly acceptable to cry later, then, as Naruto absolutely barreled in, knocking over several piles of work on the desk as he ran to him.

Instead he just sighed inwardly, it was far too late for this. "Ah, Naruto... why are you here, this late?" He said, noticing the ANBU.

"Ojiji, there's this book and it's glowing and it's talking and It's FOLLOWING ME and-"

He blinked as he held Naruto. Was he dreaming or something? He looked at the ANBU for an explanation, but the resigned looking ninja just stepped aside, so that he could actually see the floating book.

'Shock' doesn't do any justice when it began to speak again.

_"Parts report complete. Master, requesting mana for the reboot of the repair programs, the support programs, the Knights programs, and the Utility programs."_ The book slammed shut again.

Everyone just looked at Naruto, as the book floated over to him.

Sarutobi grumbled, but put himself between the book and Naruto. At a closer inspection, the ratty book seemed to be mending itself, although slowly. the cover slowly losing any rips and tears, the odd yellow cross gaining a shiny luster. It stopped in front of him.

_"Please excuse me."_ It said.

Sarutobi didn't move, he had no idea if this thing was a threat or not. He frowned when the book opened violently, the pages flying past until it stopped at a page with one line of text on it. The characters on it he couldn't read, but they glowed, and the book slammed shut again. It glowed briefly.

_"interpretation algorithm redefined"_

Sarutobi's eyes widened, it was now speaking plain, if overly stiff, Japanese.

"Who, or what, are you?"

_"... Error. Designation not set by Main Administrator. Error, Projection and Realization programs are disabled, repairing. Error, repair program not initialized, restarting. Error, not enough mana to restart repair program, requesting mana from Main Administrator."_

"Who is the Main Administrator?" Was his first question. Oh he was positive he had several thousand others. He was getting to old for this...

Instead of replying, the book merely glowed, and a soft white tendril of.. something pierced right through him. Yuugao gasped in alarm before getting ready to cut the book in two, but the Hokage just blinked, and moved to the side.

The light was shining on a giggling Naruto, who seemed to be quite.. ticklish.

The light sputtered, however, and winked out. The book however seemed to have trouble floating, seeing as it was rising and falling, it's glow sputtering. Unimpeded, it merely floated over to Naruto, and fell into his hands.

The book was quite large for his size, about as big as his chest actually, and it was quite thick. But Naruto hardly felt it's weight at all.

_"Activation program failing. Requesting mana... requesting mana.."_

Naruto's eyes widened as he, very briefly saw a girl. She looked barely older than him. Her hair was a soft brown and she looked familiar. But that familiarity didn't seem to belong to him at all. The girl was smiling, and he realized that he was looking at her from the book's point of view.

The words came to him, and when later questioned, he wouldn't know where they came from. His red, slitted eyes looked down at the book in wonder.

"Request for collection... accepted."

"Naruto, wai-"

Anything that the Sandaime said was drowned out as he winced in pain, as two small lights appeared in front of him. one a faint blue, and the other a light pink.

Both hovered between him and the book. The book opened, and almost in relief, it said _"Collecting."_

Naruto collapsed to his knees as he suddenly felt an incredibly tight feeling around his chest. It felt like he was being squeezed, but something comforting was also there.

The room softly glowed in a soft, white light. Sarutobi just looked in worry, there was nothing he could reference in his mind for such a situation. Of all he knew, who would know about talking books or mana?

The book was filling itself up, pages upon pages of blank text refilling themselves with data as fast as possible. Surprisingly, it only took about a minute before the book shut again.

The differences were extraordinary. Where the book looked like it was left in the trash for a good few years, it now looked like it was just made, the brown leather cover looking just made, and the shining gold cross on it's front seemed to glow with energy.

_"Repairs completed nine-hundred and seven hours ahead of schedule. Parts E0001 through J43, and specialty parts ES402, CVK-792 and ARK-32 are all green. Performance is at maximum, operations check completed. 80 of all programs are operating within set... master!"_

The Hokage had already caught Naruto before he fell. "He's still alive... just sleeping.." he said more to himself. Sighing, he lifted the sleeping boy into his arms, "I may as well take him home..." he said, looking at his desk. He smiled. He can always put off the paperwork.

He looked over at Yuugao. She seemed to have a headache, what with how she was rubbing her head under her mask. "Sigh.. It goes without saying, but lets just keep this a S-class secret. I don't know what just went on, but I don't need that... council.." he spat out the word like it was a terrible taste in his mouth, "Hearing about anything that concerns him."

Yuugao nodded. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Come, I'm going to take him to my house. Get that book as well. For now, you're on guard duty for Naruto."

She just nodded, and both of them disappeared in a silent swirl of leaves.

_"... why am I always forgotten?"_ the book echoed, before what could only be described as seals appeared under it. They glowed white briefly, and the book disappeared, following them.

* * *

_"Master..."_

Naruto snored on. He'd been sleeping here, in Sarutobi's house all night, quite peacefully actually.

_"Master..."_

Naruto stirred a bit, "Mmm, ramen..." he turned, drooling a bit.

_"Master... please wake up."_

Naruto slowly woke up, yawning softly. Sitting up, he heard a soft yelp, and something fell into his covered lap. Half-asleep still, he stretched. Yawning again, he suddenly remembered last night.

"Mm, must have been a dream..."

_"Master, I'm not a dream!"_

He looked down.

Floating in front of him was a young-looking girl. The odd thing was that she couldn't have been more than eleven or twelve inches tall. She wore a very short, deep black shirt with no sleeves, lined with gold. It reached down to just above her bellybutton. Under that were some skin-tight black spats that ended just above the shirt.. She wore no shoes, and didn't seem to have any accessories. Her hair was a calming sky-blue, her eyes matching it.

Understandably, he was wide awake now.

"... Who are you?"

_"Ah, You haven't named me yet master, but my default name is the Tome of the Night Sky."_

Naruto's eyes widened. He knew that name, somehow. He didn't know how, he just did. And somehow, he knew that it wasn't her real name either. More like.. a designation. Tilting his head, he blinked, "That's odd.. isn't that a.. title?"

The girl blink, and tilted her head cutely. Almost as if it didn't happen, her eyes seemed to develop a static, which disappeared as soon as it appeared.

_"AH! You're right! How did master know?"_ Naruto frowned. He didn't know how either.

But it seemed that he knew a bit more, the more he stared at the girl. She blushed a bit, as he did. "Uh.. I don't think your voice is supposed to sound like that either..."

Again, the girl sat still for a few seconds. "Oh.. that's better..."

"Guh, that's completely different from before!"

"Well this is my voice! Deal with it!"

"Bah fine!"

"Master, name me already!"

"Wait, why in hell do you keep calling me master!"

"Because master is master!" She emphasized this by pointing right at his nose.

"Quit calling me master!"

"What am I supposed to call you then!" She said, putting her arms on her hips.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage! Believe it!"

The girl smirked slightly, tilting her head, "Ok, Master is 'Uzumaki Naruto Future Hokage, Believe It"

Immediately Naruto raised his hands in front of them, forming an X. "Wrong! Just Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Just Uzumaki Naruto?"

"No, you idiot, Uzumaki Naruto!"

"You idiot, Uzumaki Naruto?"

He hit her on the head, lightly. "Stop messing up my name, I'll hit you!"

"Ow! You hit me anyway!"

"Bad girls get the fist!" he said, swiping.

"Ahh!" She yelled, dodging, "Ok, ok, Naruto! Uzumaki Naruto! I get it stop trying to hit me!"

He grinned at her suddenly, and stopped trying to tap her. She looked at him again, blushing lightly, "Umm... would you name me already!"

"Hmm, I wonder who she's talking to..."

Her eye twitched, "Would you name me already, Naruto?"

He smiled again, and looked at her.

_"I won't let anyone call you the "Book of Darkness" or the "Cursed Tome" any longer..."_ Naruto's eyes widened out in alarm, that wasn't his voice, or the girl's in front of him. He looked up slightly, and in the corner of the room was a young girl, with soft brown hair. He didn't have time to make out any other features, since when he blinked, she was gone.

_"In the name of the Mistress of the Night Sky, I grant you a new name. One who supports others with strength, the tailwind of fortune, and the blessed air.."_

"Reinforce.."

The girl's eyes widened. And she let out a smile so wide and brilliant that Naruto completely forgot where he got the name from.

"Reinforce is recognized as my name, Naruto-sama!"

"Hey, what did i say about bad girls!"

Naruto got out of the bed, finally noticing that this in fact wasn't his very small room at the orphanage. No, in fact this room was pretty big. It was obviously morning, the light shining through the strategically placed windows right where his head was previously.

The mini-girl was oddly quiet, and he turned to her, wondering what was wrong. Her skin seems to have changed color from it's pale complexion to a deep red.

"Nee, are you okay?"

Reinforce could only gape. Only when he started waving his hand in front of her did she collect what was left of her wits.

"Ahh, um, uh... Naruto-kun sorry!" She said, as she got out of the bed and flew out the room, somehow nudging the door open along the way.

Naruto blinked, but shrugged, and then started to look for the bathroom. Just where was he anyway?

Reinforce floated on the other side of the door, panting slightly and still sporting her full-body blush. 'I don't think they're supposed to be that large...'

Needless to say, she didn't even notice the ANBU right in front of her. Until she cleared her throat.

Reinforce looked up, into the white porcelain cat mask that encompassed her entire view.

"AHHHHHHHHHH"

Naruto jumped, almost slipping as he entered the bathroom that he found was connected to the bedroom. He contemplated going to figure out what Reinforce was screaming about, for all of 2 seconds. Instead he just went about his business.

Sarutobi just yawned, looking over some early reports in his living room, sipping some coffee. He was running low on it, he noted.

"Hokage-sama. This... thing... came out of Uzumaki's room."

"I'm not a thing! Let me go, I'm delicate!" Reinforce was firmly in the grip of the ANBU, not too tightly, but she couldn't move her arms or legs.

He looked up from the reports to Reinforce.

Thirty seconds later he stared at his coffee, before getting up and pouring it down the drain in the kitchen nearby.

Yuugao refrained from sighing. She had a look to maintain after all.

"Ahh, Ojisan!" came the yell from the stairs.

Naruto ran down the stairs, as he finished pouring the coffee out.

Reinforce was still trying to wiggle her way out of Yuugao's grip, when she saw Naruto again.

Yuugao swore later that she _heard_ the little... fairy.. girl.. thing.. blush. However she didn't notice at that moment due to the state of Naruto's.. undress.

Sarutobi had looked up at him and almost immediately looked away, "Oh god, that's the last thing i needed to see this morning..."

Fortunately for him, Yuugao caught herself a bit quicker than Reinforce would. "Uzumaki, I believe it would be better for all of us if you were to get some pants on." she said, laying the nearly comatose Reinforce onto the kitchen counter.

Naruto looked down.

Oh, so that's where the breeze was coming from.

* * *

Sarutobi had decided to have some tea. If one was to look, all the coffee in the kitchen was tossed into the garbage.

Yuugao had escorted Naruto back downstairs, this time making sure he was fully dressed.

Reinforce floated over to the table, and was contemplating on how to steal one of the Hokage's waffles.

Naruto was grumbling about being unable to find his orange pants, and having to go buy new ones later.

Both Yuugao and the Sandaime shared a look of long, long suffering. Their thoughts were synchronized, 'we're not letting him near that orange monstrosity ever again'.

Sarutobi cleared his throat, "Well then, lets just get to business, shall we? I'll be rather blunt seeing as being subtle is just giving me a headache. What are you, why are you here, and what does Naruto have to do with it?"

"Oy.. that is blunt.."

"Rein, what did i say about bad girls.."

"Why are you calling me Rein?" she pouted.

"'Reinforce' is hard!" said Naruto

Sarutobi cleared his throat.

"Oh. Um, well, I can't really say unless Naruto-kun gives me his concent..."

"What's a consent?"

Sarutobi sighed, "Naruto, consent means to allow..."

"Oh, I knew that, after all the future Hokage needs to know these things! Go ahead, Rein!"

"Okay, I'm Reinforce of the Tome of the Night Sky. Hmm, the tome's long-term memory is still in disrepair, but that information should be available soon."

"Alright, what is the Tome of the Night Sky?"

"It's an ancient Belkan Intelligent Device, It's original purpose... i can't access that right now. However, Intelligent Devices are items that help control one's power, as well as aid in using it while held. Where a program can be run by itself by a person, the ID can make it far easier to do so by a factor of seven-thousand percent, depending on the device. Also, a device can cast many support and defensive spells by itself, to aid it's master."

Sarutobi was writing this all down in a scroll he got from.. somewhere. Even Yuugao didn't notice, as what the midget was saying was interesting.

Naruto though, "Um, what?"

"Did you hear a word I said!?"

"Umm, i remember something about ancient..."

Rein gave him a flat look, and pointed a finger at him. _"Divine Shooter."_

Faster than he could blink, he was pelleted by stinging pink balls.

"Pay attention, I'll shoot you!" Rein said, putting her hands on her hips.

The Hokage smiled, "Ok, so you are the book? In fact, where is it now?"

"Oh, no, I'm more of a program. There are five others sealed within the tome, but only I have access to any information within it. Well, except for Naruto here. The other five though... only one other can really come out now. As for the book, Naruto-kun is currently wearing it."

"Eh? Where?" Naruto said, looking around himself.

"It's around your neck. Why am i unsurprised you didn't notice it yet..."

"Hey, I can still hear you.." he said, slipping the necklace off of his neck. It was quite simple, a solid gold chain. The headpiece was solid gold as well, three arrows pointing to either side and down, with a small circle behind them.

"Eh, it's kind of small.." he complained.

"Well, she's still repairing. so it's only obvious she'd take a resting form."

"Hmm. so what is your goal for Naruto?" Sarutobi said, before Naruto could reply.

"Naruto-kun is my Master, and despite being DUMB-" "I'm still here!" "I'll protect him as much as possible..." she said, blushing a little.

_"Feh, I guess I'll do the same.. he is kind of stupid, though."_ Came a voice from his necklace.

"Hey, I'm not... who are you?"

"Ahh, That would be Agito.. awake I see." Rein had a surprisingly smug look on her face as she floated up closer to the necklace. It shimmered a bit. "Hehe, you're last on the queue, hm?"

_"Oy, don't act so smug just because your body was repaired first... flat-chest"_

Reinforce developed a tick in her left eye. The room seemed colder for a reason. "Oh ho? Says the girl who's chest is a steep as a cliff-side..."

_"...I'm going to kill you."_

Naruto, Sarutobi and Yuugao all just stared as what seemed to be a bickering match started between the small girl and the necklace.

Naruto came back into the dining room about ten minutes later. Leaving the Tome on the table so that Rein and Agito supposedly could argue, he came back to the same sight, except this time he was carrying a plate with some waffles on it, and a bowl of ramen.

'Hm, I don't recall even having ramen...' Sarutobi thought. Then again, one knew not to get between Naruto and his breakfast ramen.

Rein immediately stopped arguing however, when she saw the small stack of waffles. Faster than he thought, she was standing on the plate next to them, and held one up, biting into it before Naruto had even put the plate down. However, to the dismay of his aging ears, she and Agito started up their argument when Agito mentioned something about fat. He sighed mentally.

Another thought came to Sarutobi's mind however, and he voiced it once Naruto sat down, "Naruto, where did you find the book in the first place?"

"Oh, I found her in an alley! I was looking for a place to..."

Naruto actually looked down, frowning. Sarutobi frowned as well, that wasn't something Naruto would usually do.

He mumbled something, and Agito stopped talking suddenly.

"I'm sorry Naruto, what was that?"

"...I was just looking for somewhere to sleep..."

Under her mask, Yuugao frowned.

"Uzumaki-san, I was under the impression that you were currently housed at the orphanage..."

"Oh.. they just kicked me out again, It's no big-"

Sarutobi had slammed the table down hard, making everyone jump. He stood, not caring about his chair.

Naruto couldn't recall the old man looking so _angry_, but before he could even shrink back a bit, he spoke.

"..Again, Naruto-kun? This has happened before?"

"Ahh, well... yeah.. but it's not a problem, unless it rains, and even then I can usually sleep in a box or something.."

Sarutobi held his head in his hands now. Gods, to leave a child on the street like this...

He sighed. Naruto won't be going back to that orphanage again. Looking at the boy, he smiled, even if it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Hmm, Naruto-kun, that reminds me, that I do owe you something for your birthday?"

"Ahh, really old man! Sweet!"

Sarutobi chuckled, "I am going to go out, and I'll be back within the hour. I hope you'll be ready by then, Naruto?"

"Sure thing, old man!"

"Great, Cat, if you would stay for a while longer?" It wasn't a request.

However, she smiled under her mask, "No need to ask, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage just smiled before taking his leave. He had work to do, after all.

_"Master... that they would do that to him."_ Agito was in an unusual mood.

_"Yes, something is terribly wrong... Humans don't normally do that to their children..."_

Reinforce had a serious look on her face. If Naruto was looking, he'd probably find it terribly out of place.

However, Yuugao was looking. She happened to find it out of place.

Reinforce and Agito were communicating telepathically, mostly about their concerns for Naruto. Said master in question was just eating his breakfast happily, the entire dreary subject behind him.

There were also other concerns that they were wary about. The book had said it had drawn from Two linker cores.

Two. Nothing that exists has two linker cores. One was Immense, with a capital I, and it had mostly drained from it. The book said it tasted like strawberries, which was odd. Linker cores don't have much of a taste.

The other one wasn't nearly as large, Oh, it was impressive by itself, sparking a memory within the book about someone, but not much else.

_"This is just odd, Agito. He's definitely odd.. those whisker marks, and his eyes.. everything about his DNA says his eyes are supposed to be blue, but they're red..."_

_"Until the book awakens later today, we can't do a more thorough scan of master. I guess we'll have to wait until then..."_

* * *

A large, rather overweight woman waddled her way across the room to the door.

"I'm coming, you shit, have some damn patience!" she yelled. This wasn't probably a good idea, for several reasons,

The first being that she ran out of breath far quicker than usual.

The children closest to her(which wasn't very close at all) decided that extending the distance between themselves and her would probably be best.

This woman was in fact the manager of the Bright Leaf Orphanage. Somewhere around 50 years old, at some point in life she might have been called a kind person of some worth.

However, as the ANBU broke the door in, conveniently slamming it into the rotund woman as she neared it, they could immediately assume the worst.

The inside of the building was almost sickeningly clean. Probably free of dirt and stans everywhere.

The children, however, were dressed in rags not fit to even step on. Most all of them in the room weren't even wearing shoes. Pants seemed to be an option here too, though thankfully the rags seemed large enough to cover them to their knees.

Most of the children carried brooms or other cleaning instruments. Some were ignoring the ruckus as they cleaned. They all looked like they haven't bathed for a good year, either.

All of them were painfully thin. Many had bruises on them, especially some of the girls.

The ANBU, of course, were appalled. A rather tall man wearing a hood and a rat mask, had to step back outside, complaining that the stench from the back had been absolutely terrifying. The leader, one in a dog mask, apprehended the wide load, and quickly tied the woman's arms behind her

"What are you doing! Release me this instant! You.."

The woman shut up as soon as the man looked at her. She also pissed herself, and probably would have done worse had she not passed out from the amount of killing intent that was focused on her.

The man frowned in disgust, holding the blob away from him. "Weasel, Boar, See that these kids are watched for a while. And, of course, investigate." he said, before disappearing with the woman.

Said Weasel and Boar were now surrounded by at least a dozen kids, all of whom seemed eager to find out exactly what every little thing they had were.

Oddly enough, Weasel was smiling behind his mask, answering their questions.

Maybe joining the ANBU wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Uchiha Itachi would thank his father later.

* * *

Yuugao was conversing with another ANBU as Naruto was watching the television. In the back of her mind, she always thought that 'Ninja News' was easily the silliest name for a television show.

The ANBU nodded before disappearing.

She walked into the living room, where Naruto was on the couch. Rein was above him, sitting in his hair and complaining about it.

"The Hokage will be late, so I am going to escort you to where we'll meet him."

Naruto tilted his head back at her, "Huh, ok, Cat-girl!"

Yuugao's posture didn't change, but the room did get quite a bit colder.

Naruto, being Naruto, didn't notice as he left the room to get his jacket.

"...brat's just lucky because he's seven..."

And the room warmed up.

* * *

Hyuuga Hiashi smirked.

No one saw it, however.

At the moment, at Sarutobi's request, he was taking care of some paperwork.

Now, normally when a sane man is given the Hokage's paperwork to do, the last thing they would do is smirk.

However, Hiashi was a _Hyuuga_, and mere paperwork was not something that a Hyuuga quailed in fear at. Oh they didn't smirk at it either however.

The source of Hiashi's entertainment came from the floor below him. The Byakugan, the bloodlimit of those with Hyuuga blood, was just so good at both being able to finish paperwork, as well as watching entertainment.

Watching the Village Council quail in fair was probably up there with Icha Icha Paradise in quality and value.

So Hyuuga Hiashi signed away, and chuckled.

He would have to thank Sarutobi later.

"Severe Malnutrition. Some of them can't remember the last time they ate."

ANBU were outside the door, so even if one of them decided to burst through the locked door, they wouldn't be escaping anytime soon. Two of the forty-three men in the large room already tried, and were currently tied to their seats faster than they saw.

"They also seem to have absolutely no clothes to call their own. Despite the manager having somehow finding clothes to fit her size, no doubt custom-made..."

Three ANBU were stationed outside the wide window. One man tried to jump out, only to be caught and placed back in his seat, tied up. No one decided however to pick the pieces of glass out of his arms, though.

"Of the 1.3 million ryou put into the Orphanage fund, four-hundred thousand went to this specific orphanage a year."

The lights were on, however, the room was almost completely dark. He walked around the room, slowly and deliberately. The people in the room winced every time he spoke. He changed pages, no emotion on his face nor his voice as he recited.

"According to testaments from the children, they were to either clean the entire orphanage themselves, or stay in their rooms. No toys, no books, just work, or sleep."

One of the people in the back had passed out, but was rudely awakened by an ANBU.

"And finally.. This caretaker, whom has no qualifications whatsoever, is in fact a wanted criminal in several outlying towns and cities in the Land of Fire, for crimes far too heinous to even repeat."

Sarutobi slammed the papers onto the desk. The desk itself, while it didn't crack under the blow, instead it's four posts sunk right through the floor. Everyone in the room jumped.

_"Explain."._

Hyuuga Hiashi was no longer laughing as he made his way to the council room.

He saw something he personally trained himself to recognize. And then it almost all fit.

But first, answers.

He stormed into the room, leaking killing intent. He was sure he saw at least two or three people urinate themselves as he looked directly at the individuals he was after. Their eyes widened in alarm.

However, The esteemed Hyuuga clan head had moved through the room quicker than almost all of them could see. Before Sarutobi could say a word, four men and a woman were unconscious.

Many people wonder why most Hyuuga are not medical ninja. They, more than anyone, had a history of incredible chakra control and their sight beyond sight was something that could save more lives, especially on the battlefield. With the superior taijutsu of the Hyuuga, and even rudimentary medical skills, they'd be a force on the battlefield.

However, to this day only around 6 of the Hyuuga have become Medical Ninja.

The Byakugan's abilities are well known. Heightened eyesight, ti the point where one could see a being's chakra circulatory system. Telescopic, three-hundred and fifty-nine degree sight. However, what isn't well documented is the side effects.

There is a point where too much control over one's chakra can lead to forcing the brain to focus far harder than it was built for. The mind of a Hyuuga is already stressed, for their vision forces them to focus on far more things than their brains could focus on. A normal human could focus on sixteen different things within their field of vision. But when that vision could be zoomed, not to mention expanded, the mind could only adapt to it.

The odd thing was that chakra control did not help this problem at all. It added to it. Being able to focus even harder taxed the mind far much more than it was built for. For many Hyuuga, this led to blindness, hallucinations, and in some cases insanity, or worse, the mind shutting down.

Medical Ninja were required to have an extreme amount of chakra control. This, for a Hyuuga, led to Strange Things happening. A few claimed to have actually seen down to a level reserved for microscopes, and some even far more.

Hiashi had, at one point in life, wanted to become a medical ninja. After the first week, he quite smartly abandoned that idea. However, unlike many other Hyuuga who went down or around that path, he chose something else.

Hiashi was one of the villages few masters of poisons. After much training, he was able to classify many different poisons, assigning them to a color sometimes. Unlike specific medical ninja training, this actually required little control, just patience, stamina, and an open mind.

So, imagine his surprise, that while looking in on the hilarity of the Sandaime chewing out the absolutely wretched village council, he found people with a very specific, and very familiar poison hidden in their teeth.

* * *

It was an unusually cool morning, Naruto discovered. He shivered slightly as he fell in place behind Cat-onee-chan.

He was somewhat excited, to a degree. His understanding of things wasn't all there, having no one to show him the lefts or rights of life. But he could understand that he had something that could be thought of as _AWESOME_. Oh it was a magic, talking book, but it came with friends! Before today, he could have counted his friends on one hand. Now, he apparently could count them on both!

He shivered again, but was happy. Not many people were outside yet, though some stalls and stores were open. Many of the shopkeepers glared at him, not noticing the ANBU escort. It was almost as if they were daring him to come up to their stall and buy something.

Inwardly, he grinned. He had friends now, who needs their stuff!

Yuugao frowned as the brat cackled behind her. What was on his mind _now?_ God it had better not be another prank.

Naruto sneezed.

"Hey, Naruto, are you cold?" Rein looked absolutely fine in her flimsy clothes, as she sat on his shoulder. He looked at her incredulously, he was wearing more clothes than her and he was still shivering, and here she was fine.

"Rein, how come you're not cold?" He asked.

"Ah, my armor is pretty comfortable."

Both he and Yuugao stopped and stared at her, blinking.

"...Armor." Cat-san was always straight to the point, Naruto thought.

"Yep, how do you like it! I changed the design.. well you've never seen the old one, but that one used to be so stuffy and I didn't have as much mobility in it. This is much better!"

Both of them looked at the mini-girl wearing, almost literally, two small pieces of clothing.

Yuugao, as a testament to her training, just turned around and walked away.

Naruto just sneezed again, upsetting her perch.

Rein gained some understanding, "Ohh, I could tell you how to summon your own armor!"

Naruto stared at her. "I won't have to wear... that... would i?"

Rein shook her head, smiling, "Oh no, It can be whatever you want it to look like!"

Understanding rose in Naruto like the morning sun.

Yuugao froze in mid-step, terror halting her steps as she heard that line.

A while away, Sarutobi's eyes widened as he felt a cold chill run along his spine.

The smile on Naruto's face was _not a good thing_.

* * *

Hiashi glared at the rest of the council, most all of which had backed the heck away.

Sarutobi came over, "Hm, I take it there's a reason for this?"

Hiashi nodded, "Yes, but this will require.. privacy."

"Hm, I see." Sarutobi called an ANBU over, "Please bring me Dog-kun and Weasel-kun, and have them take these five to my office. Do not let any of these.. people.. leave this room."

The ANBU nodded, vanishing. One of the ballsier council members spoke up, "You can't do this to us! And besides, I have to use the bathroom!"

Sarutobi glared at the man, who suddenly had his personal space expanded beyond reason. "As of right now, this.. situation, has been upgraded to military class. Consider yourselves all under detainment until further notice." He smirked a little, "You can leave your filth right here, along with the rest of this _waste_. The rest of you shouldn't complain, you're used to shoveling bullshit anyway."

He and Hiashi vanished, with Dog and Weasel, who entered the room to carry the four unconscious members.

For some reason, no one on the council decided to refute him. Odd that.

* * *

Naruto rubbed his hands evilly. He almost cackled again, but decided against it. Yuugao, for all of her training, could not hold in the shiver.

She just knew her imagination would be insufficient in predicting the horror that Naruto would probably create.

Naruto was currently thinking up his idea for his armor.

Armor was a pretty loose word in this case. Rein had said that it could be cloth if he wanted. It was made purely from a portion of his mana, and that portion wouldn't be accessible to him when he had it on. So whether it was made from cloth or steel, it was just as unyielding. It protected from both physical and magical damage. It would be extremely resistant to heat, cold, and other elements, and would be hard to tear or pierce.

In an unusually bright moment, he had asked what would happen if he got stabbed.

"Well, it wouldn't go through. It feels and moves like cloth, but it's your mana. And this mana has been purposely designed to protect you, so it wouldn't let it past you. However, don't think that this is some incredible armor that can protect you from everything. If you're hit, stabbed, or otherwise beat upon, chances are you'd at least feel a fraction of the damage anyway. The excess energy has to go somewhere, and it takes an incredible amount of it to completely nullify such physical damage."

Naruto nodded, even he knew that everything can't be perfect. Because if everything was perfect, he'd be Hokage.

"Cutting you would be a bit more difficult, in fact the armor is more of a second skin to your body. Completely invisible, extends an inch or two out, but doesn't interfere with you at all. It's a pretty complex program."

And that explained away her clothes. which was how she was able to wear so little and not be cold at all.

Yuugao interrupted, however. "We're here."

"Eh?" Naruto looked around. When did they enter the forest? They were on a small path, very small actually, and he could see a river and a bridge in the distance.

"Wait, when did we leave the town?"

'And this kid wants to be a ninja?' Yuugao didn't get the chance to reprimand him, however.

"Ahh, Master is an idiot! Pay attention to your surroundings more!" She said from atop his head.

"I was paying attention! You were lecturing me!"

"So? How did you not notice us enter a forest of all things!"

"Ahh you're so noisy! Who would notice anything when you're yelling so much!"

"I AM NOT YELLING!"

Yuugao hoped that this could be considered hazard pay. There had to be a clause on the ANBU contract for this.

Hiashi slapped his head, grumbling.

The five councilmen, still unconscious, were in some cells near the interrogation rooms. Despite some oddly consistent begging, the Sandaime did not let Ibiki have his way with them.

A medic-nin had been called in to remove and identify their suicide capsules.

The results were not very good at all. Most especially after they brought a Yamanaka in to see why they would have ANBU-only class suicide capsules.

The civilian council was a recent addition to Konoha. Before, it would be part of a clan head's responsibility to help govern at the village level. However, the number of clans was greatly reduced by not only the Hidden War, but the Kyuubi's sudden attack as well.

Very few investigated the Kyuubi attack. It truly came without warning. Literally, it appeared not a kilometer from the east wall, and in all it's anger, it's pride still showed through, as it didn't run or even leap to the hidden village.

It walked, leering down at it.

But to this day no one could figure out where it came from. There were no sightings from patrols, no other villages or outlying towns even touched.

It just appeared.

But just as soon, they were attacked, and that night went down in history. With the severe decrease in suitable clan heads to help with the village, the reinstated Hokage had little choice other than to start a council composed of non-ninja.

He never regretted that decision more than today. Hiashi and Sarutobi both shared many a drink over 'those council bastards' who, in just a year thought that they as a collective could hold more power over him.

In fact, they were sharing a drink right now. The mood was somber, and neither broke the silence.

Under the jutsu of the Yamanaka, one's mind was just a book. And these civilians had no training in even resisting.

On the table between them was a list of names. Almost all of these people were on the village council. A few were ninja.

They had called in all of the ninja and immediately sent them in for questioning.

Now there was little doubt.

The Hokage stood, finishing his sake, and nodded at Hiashi.

The lavender-eyed man grinned and disappeared.

At the top of the list was a man both knew very well.

To be honest, Danzo _should_ have planned an uprising a bit better.

Sarutobi snorted. The man had supposedly 'left to see some daimyo.'

Sarutobi looked down at the list again. He smirked.

Danzo was a fool, to have underestimated him.

He pressed a button under the desk, that was hidden in a genjutsu of his own making. It was something he prepared for this very moment. The button set several important things in motion, to guarantee what he would be doing today.

Danzo had spies, most definitely. The council, some ninja, and his personal little 'root' platoon. But Sarutobi had spies as well. Spies not raised out of fear or money, but loyalty.

The 'Silent High Alert' button was one of his best works of art yet. With the press, almost all loyal Jounin, Chunin and ANBU were given one order.

'No one leaves Konoha.'

He vanished, he had some grim work to do today, but he ought to at least start with something better.

Around the village, almost a hundred ninja mobilized to guard it's walls.

* * *

Hiashi had a very creepy smile as he entered the room.

Very quickly, he called the command ANBU to him.

The ANBU was shocked, but understood. The council grew more nervous. They had been in here for half an hour.

The door slammed shut. The ANBU relayed his commands to the rest. They were shocked as well, but orders are orders.

Hiashi smiled as a hidden wall sprang up in the back, completely blocking the windows.

He unfurled a scroll to them all. Immediately, he spoke the orders of the Hokage.

There would be a lot of paperwork for this, he thought,

Fifteen minutes later, Only Hiashi and the ANBU that were on guard left the room.

There was nothing left to guard, after all.

* * *

Sarutobi appeared in a tree above the path, conveniently, right behind Naruto.

He sat there for at least 5 minutes, just watching him. Rein had already saw him, but he just gave her the universal sign to be quiet about it, and she grinned at him, nodding.

Yuugao had also noticed him, but decided not to say anything either.

On some subconscious level, both knew that Naruto had been planning something Truly Horrendous. It was time for payback.

"Naruto-kun, good to see you."

Internally, he grinned. Surprising the boy was getting harder these days, but he still had it.

Naruto recovered quite quickly, but had already disrupted Rein's perch atop his head. "Ahh, Ojisan!" he yelled. "Don't surprise me like that!"

"Pay more attention this time!"

"I always pay attention!"

"He was there for FIVE MINUTES!"

Naruto just folded his arms and pouted cutely.

"Don't give me that Naruto." Said Rein.

Sarutobi cleared his throat, "Well then, lets just get on with it. Catch."

"Eh?" Naruto turned to face him, only for a key to hit him on the head. He picked it out of his hair, "Eh, a Key? What's it for?"

Sarutobi just pointed down the path at the bridge.

Naruto turned to look. He blinked, and rubbed his eyes, looked again.

"...where did that house come from?"

Yuugao blinked. House?

Rein palmed her face, "You didn't see that big house? It was always there!"

"No one said anything!" Naruto said, "All that was there was a river and a bridge to more forest!"

"How can you miss something so big!" she said, floating in front his face. She looked at his eyes, "Hmm, do you have an eye problem?" she said, poking an eyelid softly.

"Ahh, knock that out!"

Yuugao decided to speak up, "I'm sorry, but I don't see a house either."

Rein looked up at her, confused.

Naruto grinned triumphantly.

Sarutobi chuckled, jumping down to them. "While it's interesting to know that you can see through it, No one who hasn't touched that key can. Probably one of the most impressive set of seals i've seen, I say."

They all looked at him.

He smiled and walked to the house. When he opened the door, Yuugao's mind snapped into place as the genjutsu fell. After all, one does not just open a door out of nothing.

"Are you going to come into your new house, Naruto?"

* * *

Danzo had smirked to himself as he and a few of his ANBU flew through the trees, on the way to Konoha.

It was hard to start a hidden village. Imagine his surprise when Orochimaru, of all people, decided to start one.

It was perfect, really. In exchange for killing Sarutobi, he just helped the man begin his village, slowly giving him either ryou or some of his ninja to start training. simple.

With the Sandaime dead, he could step in, either as Hokage, or if a new one was admitted in, control and coerce them to shape the Leaf how he believed it should be.

Right now, the senile old fool thought he was meeting some daimyo, to strengthen ties or get more missions or some such drivel.

Everything was perfect, and in a few years, Konoha would be his.

He cackled, startling his ANBU.

They never got used to him cackling.

The house wasn't exactly large, but it was oddly spotless. A quick tour found an empty fridge, two bedrooms with bathrooms for each of them, a kitchen and a living room. There was a lot of room around the house, and it was quite secluded, though the village wasn't very far from it. A stream ran across it's backyard, and behind it the forest began again.

They were currently in the living room, and Naruto was still in a bit of shock.

Sarutobi just smiled at him, "Seeing as the.. orphanage.. isn't suitable anymore, I decided to just give you this. Do you like it?"

Naruto was a bit put out, "Ojisan, a house! Of course i like it! How did it hide from me!"

He chuckled, "Well, this was one of the Yondaime's several safe houses. He had some... ahem, women problems back when he was a Jounin, so in his spare time, he had these built by a friend of his, and created a seal to hide it with. The genjutsu is quite complex, as is the seals for it, but it's self-sustaining as long as they aren't broken."

Rein was impressed, but held off of commenting.

Naruto frowned though, "Ne, what about the other kids in the orphanage, are they getting houses too?"

Sarutobi blinked. He wasn't quite expecting that question. "Hm, well, for the moment, they're all going to be spending some time with some ninja. In fact, I have good word that some are going to be adopted."

Naruto grinned. While he wasn't friends with most of the kids, they didn't outright ignore or hate him like what all the other kids and adults did outside of it. Some of them even shared food with him, and food was already rare.

Sarutobi smiled. The boy was, despite all the grief that's plagued him, concerned about others. This was a good sign, right?

"Hey, Rein, how about we try to summon my armor now?"

"Okay, I think you can do at least that for now." she said, agreeing.

Suddenly, the room had gotten a terrible chill.

Sarutobi and Yuugao shivered.

"Ah, that reminds me, i have some more business to do. Cat-san, I would like you to accompany Naruto to help him get anything he would need for here. Effective immediately. Later!" He vanished.

Under her mask, Yuugao was crying. Abandoned, she was abandoned! The old man will pay for this!

* * *

Danzo was concerned as he neared the gates to his village. They were closed.

He signaled his ANBU, and they all went to the road. Crossing the tree cover, they saw that there were no ninja outside of it, save one.

Sarutobi sat on the ground, his summoned staff leaning on him. He was in his full battle regalia, and his eyes were closed.

His words cut through the air, sharp yet quiet.

"Danzo. How was your time with Orochimaru?"

/-/-/End of Chapter.


	2. My Village is Number One

Here we go, chapter 2. That sure was a long week, huh? Distractions and all that.

In other news, I have a better idea of what direction this will go to. Now excuse me and enjoy as I take far too many liberties with both series, despite me not owning either of them.

Silent the Universe - Chapter 2  
My Village is Number One

* * *

Danzo was in shock long enough to have to be pushed out of the way from the sudden attack.

At one instant, Sarutobi was sitting on the ground, almost peacefully cradling his summoned staff.

The next, the ANBU that pushed him out of the way was little more than red coloring for the ground. The staff stopped inches from hitting the ground, and a small localized gust picked up from the swing.

THAT shocked Danzo out of his surprise as he jumped back from the second blow, a horizontal one that would have easily cleaved him in two.

"Sarutobi.."

The man set his staff next to him, glaring.

"Your spies are dead. Your roots are dead. That mockery of a council is also dead. Your heartless, worthless ambition is dead."

Sarutobi moved slightly as Danzo suddenly appeared next to him, a katana in hand, his thrust missed by inches. A slight movement halted a horizontal swipe with his staff, and he dodged back from a kick.

An ANBU actually attempted to attack him before his midsection ceased to exist from a swipe of the staff. Sarutobi followed through and turned the swipe into another downward blow aimed at a charging Danzo,

Danzo's eyes widened and he backpedaled madly, barely missing the staff.

This time, it did hit the ground.

The ground did not as much shatter, as it seemed to just collapse in on itself. The impact threw away the remaining ANBU, and Danzo himself collided with the Konoha wall.

The impact was heard and felt even within some of Konoha.

Danzo shook off the immense dizziness and nausea from the impact. He felt blood trickle out of his left ear, he knew then that he would be deaf in it from now on. He slid off the small crater, walking a few paces before bringing his arm up to hold his head.

His eyes widened in horror as Sarutobi had gripped the arm and simply ripped it off, tossing it at the Wall.

Danzo didn't scream, even armless, he was already backing away.

"Sarutobi.. I'll kill you for this.." he said, his face twisted with insanity.

The Hokage, known to many as "The Professor", and known to the dead as "The Beast", frowned at him. "And since when did you think that you could ever match me in a fight,_ boy_?"

Danzo's expression grew madder, and something seemed to crack. He laughed as Sarutobi stared at him, sad at how far gone his once-friend has went.

His eyes widened though, as a very dark, evil chakra seemed to rise from Danzo. Deep black spots, resembling ink, appeared all over his body in various sizes, but all perfectly round. His eye was unchanged, but the bandages, already ripped, came off of his face.

Instead of a missing eye, laid a Sharingan, fully matured. Veins around it were bulging as he looked at Sarutobi.

Despite his surprise, Sarutobi only thought that it was the perfect example of a look of madness.

Danzo's cursed seal seemed to dance on his skin, a soft burning sound came from the circles as they moved about. Deep black appendages appeared where his arms were, not fully arms and not even five fingers were on the monstrosities, instead they ended in a clawed, three-fingered hand.

Danzo looked at Sarutobi, and grinned, then cackled insanely. Before disappearing.

"Die, Sarutobi! Konoha.. It's mine for the taking!" he yelled, appearing next to the aged man in a wild dash, his claws extended.

The arm neatly slid through Sarutobi's back, sliding through his flesh easily, through his heart, a lung and then out the side as he ripped through it.

Danzo was grinning too much to notice Sarutobi turn around. He did notice when Sarutobi gave him a nice hug though.

"Eh?"

The ANBU watching the fight could only describe the resulting explosion as 'pure awesome'.

Danzo only briefly realized that he was in the air before he started falling.

He was an absolute mess. It seemed that part of his chest had actually caved in from the cheer concussive force. His odd arms seemed to lose form, simply being a giant mass of tentacles that looked to be writing in pain. His face, chest, and legs were all charred slightly and smoking.

He hit the ground with a hard thud. He realized that he had been in the air for quite a while, as a bone in his shoulder shattered from the force. The crater crumbled a bit from the force of his landing.

The pain, however, was tuned out quickly as he rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding having his legs destroyed as the staff hit the ground again, causing a tremor.

'More power'

He had caught a glimpse of Konoha when he was in the air. In his vision, the Hokage Monument only had one face, His.

'Power..'

His vision of Konoha had changed, into one oppressed and ruled completely by him, where he had an army and would conquer the entire world with it.

'More, more...'

His Konoha would be rivaled by no one and nothing would stand in it's way, and by proxy, in his way.

* * *

Hundreds of miles away, deep within a village hidden under the ground, a man with pale white skin frowned. He looked at the man, a rival and once a friend, who was standing in front of him. 'Hm, it seems that one of my experiments.. has failed.'

* * *

Sarutobi gasped as the ground shook, and killer intent leaked off of Danzo as he stood. The circles were no more as his burnt, charred skin seemed to slide off, exposing a hard-brown skin underneath. His hair seemed to grow into a pale green, and his arms reformed. His legs seemed to change, the ankles lengthening.

"SARUTOBI!!"

The man barely had time before he could dodge back, the ground itself trying to attack him. He was about to reply when he was struck by a bolt of lightning.

The lightning was soundless, but very bright. And Very, very fast. It didn't hurt as much as he expected, but it was still quite a shock. Sarutobi narrowed his eyes as he shook off the temporary paralysis in astonishing speed as he dodged another spike of earth out to get him.

The ANBU were in awe, watching the two absolute juggernauts fight each other.

Sarutobi dodged with almost clairvoyant precision, dodging lightning and spires of earth by inches. Some of the spires he had to destroy, and some lightning he had to block. Danzo was moving forward, closer to him, probably trying to determine if he was another Explosive Clone.

Heh, the look on his face was priceless at that moment.

Sarutobi frowned and jumped, With a bare mental thought, his staff grew huge, and slammed into the ground, embedding it somewhat.

Then, it lengthened. Sarutobi rode the staff straight up at a speed Danzo's sharingan could barely follow, but as he was about to shoot more lightning at him, the staff trembled.

And broke into three, huge pieces. Each piece was connected by a short chain.

'A sanjiegun..' was all Danzo could think before he noticed Sarutobi making seals high up.

He was far too late.

Vines and roots made of earth already surrounded his legs, and made their way to his arms.

'What..? But he can't do Earth Techniques!'

"O ho, you are probably thinking that I can't do Earth techniques, hm?" Sarutobi said, easily heard despite being so high up.

Danzo tried to will the earth to fall apart, and failed. He even tried attacking it with lightning, but that almost worked. Before the earth crystallized, then it just slid off as well. He was trapped.

"I may not be able to do Earth Techniques from up here, Danzo. However, Enma certainly can." Sarutobi was already right beside him.

He gasped, noting that the Monkey King, in Sanjiegun form, was in fact stuck in the ground.

"You've become obsessed with power so much, that you've lost sight of what being a ninja really means."

Danzo could only growl at him, before he disappeared.

The sanjiegun shrunk again, and Sarutobi was falling from the air with it, twisting it and himself before lashing out with it.

It carved a great trench in the ground before it hit Danzo in the sternum with enough force to dislodge him from the crystals. Danzo retaliated with more lightning, but it was sloppy.

"Hmm, getting slower, as I thought. This is pathetic, Danzo. Just how far has your ambition made you fall?" He said, before he knocked him away.

Sarutobi tossed the sanjiegun into the air before appearing next to Danzo. Surprisingly, through all of his pain, he was able to attack Sarutobi, cutting him deeply in some areas.

Danzo grinned before kicking him in the stomach fiercely, doubling Sarutobi over.

"**Taijutsu was never your strong point, Sarutobi..**" he said to the man bent over his leg.

Sarutobi just coughed, before grinning. "You still don't get it, do you, _boy_."

Danzo didn't get time to become angry as Sarutobi grabbed his leg,

He was angry though when he ended up embedded in the Wall again, missing that leg and the imprint of a foot in his chest.

"You used to be a _ninja_, Danzo. A feared one. Now all I see in front of me is a fool obsessed with power, who can't even use it right."

Sarutobi dropped the leg, catching the now reformed Staff, before throwing it, point first, into Danzo's head.

The ANBU winced, and a few lost their footing from atop the wall, the impact having shaken it terribly.

Sarutobi sat down, panting as he fought to regain his breath.

'God I'm out of practice.'

Danzo just fell off of the wall, unconscious, heavily bruised and broken, and looking normal.

Enma changed back into his usual monkey self, before helping Sarutobi over.

"Heh, I haven't seen you fight like that since.."

Sarutobi chuckled, interrupting him. "Ahh, I'm getting to old for this.

The Monkey King laughed loudly as the ANBU came down, "We all are, old man. See you later." he said, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Sarutobi could not recall when he took up smoking. As he looked at the setting sun, he sighed, aggravating his wounds a little.

He looked sadly at the unconscious body of Danzo. The man had once been a good friend, almost a brother. It was ironic, that a man who hated traitors as he did, would end up trying to ally with one.

Now that same man was missing his other arm and a leg. Sarutobi made sure to stop the bleeding with a decently aimed fire jutsu.

That fight sorely brought home the fact that he was definitely out of practice. He winced as he stood, several wounds bothering him as he did so.

He grunted, picking up Danzo's unconscious form. It was a bit difficult, considering his wounds. It wasn't very obvious, however he was incredibly strained from the fight. Danzo, for a few moments, was pushing him to a point he hasn't been to in years.

A bit too close to his limits, but then again, his only limit was death.

His body hasn't used the gates in a long while after all.

He had a spy to take to interrogation, and he sorely wanted a bath and a pretty young medic-nin to take care of his wounds.

He held his nose to keep it from bleeding as he turned his back to the sun, and made his way into Konoha proper.

Behind him, some ANBU helped clear the rest of the corpses that were Danzo's guard. All of them ignored Sarutobi's odd giggling.

* * *

The Tome was open in front of Naruto.

Reinforce was standing on it, looking up at him.

"Before we tell you about the book, first we must talk about the Tome!" she said, walking in a small circle. "It's original purpose was to simple record the universe's magical spells, or as the tome calls them, Programs, and make them available to whoever is in possession of the tome."

"Wait, magic?" Yuugao was a bit put out by that. While people could call what Ninjas do 'magic', it was more of an art, something that was studied scientifically by many doctors and medic-nins across the countries.

Rein nodded, "Yes, but of course, not the rabbit out of hat thing. For example, you're using some form of body energy I've never encountered before."

"Yes, we call it chakra. It is a combination of physical energy we get from our cells, and spiritual energy from meditation, we focus it into a wide array of applications, mostly for fighting and healing. Everyone has chakra, but only those with talent in shaping it are eligible to become ninja." A textbook answer from Yuugao.

Rein nodded, storing that information away for later, "Well, magical energy is somewhat similar. It's source is within the Linker Core, a well of energy within every human being. Chakra and it may be related, but I'd have to look into it a bit more. Everyone has a linker core, but only few can actually use it to an extent past very basic spells."

Naruto was doing something that would have shocked many people if they saw him at the moment. He was paying attention, and even writing notes on a notebook he got from... somewhere.

"Anyway, while your magic can grow, it's incredibly hard to deplete. However, it does take focus to cast spells, and you can get mentally exhausted from casting too many. The real growth in a mage comes from focusing their magic. Of course, there are spells that require little focus, but a LOT of magic. There are spells which require a lot of focus, but not much mana. And you can also master some spells to the point where you won't have to focus on them much, or at all."

Naruto was taking notes still, but he was still a bit awed.

Rein grinned, "Now, there are also a few spells that take no focus at all from the start. The Armor is one of them, which is why I'm teaching it to you."

Yuugao sat up straight, "Wait a second.. the book's main purpose is to teach the spells it has, isn't it!"

Rein smiled, nodding "The _Tome_, however, you are correct! Ninety-five percent of the spells it has are spells other people have made. Five percent of those spells cannot be learned, and require the book to cast. The other five percent are original spells that came with the book, and also require the book to have."

Naruto blinked, "Wait, just how many spells does the book have anyway?"

Rein just looked down at the book, and then looked up at him, "Hmm, although most of them aren't available, around one hundred and forty assault spells, seventy defensive spells, forty-three support spells, and forty-four supplementary spells."

Even Yuugao was surprised, Naruto was in a bit of shock.

"However, the tome has several safety mechanisms, so you can't just learn the biggest attack spell you can unless you're ready for it. Incredibly talented mages create their spells, however you're learning them from the book, so you'd need to work your way up."

Yuugao nodded, that sounded right. Even if you had the chakra and control needed, if you've never used a jutsu in your life, you just wouldn't be able to pull it off.

Rein smiled, and with a little effort, closed the book and picked it up, hovering a bit.

Naruto blinked, as if he just realized something.

"Heey, how do you fly like that anyway?"

Rein blinked at him, holding the book with both hands under her, "Huh, it's just a basic spell."

"So, I could fly too?"

Rein nodded, "Yeah, it's pretty simple, I could teach you that too if you want."

Sarutobi shivered, even as his wounds were getting treated. Now why did he feel that there was going to be even more paperwork in the future?

If Yuugao was a lesser woman, she would be crying at the thought of what a Flying Naruto could do. He was already somewhat legendary among many of the ninja for his pranks.

They were already outside, and Rein had already explained some of the basics of feeling for his mana. Yuugao herself was leaning against a tree, watching the two. She smiled a little. It might be a short mission, but it was definitely a nice vacation from the normal assassination work.

Naruto was sitting on the ground, his eyes closed as Rein whispered to him.

'Hmm, find my linker core...' she had said. He wasn't very used to sitting still, but if it meant flying, then he'd definitely try as best as he could.

"Clear your mind, Naruto, and think only of what you remember mana feeling like."

He recalled when he first found the book, and when it first drained him. It almost felt like a thick but slippery liquid. He relayed that to her.

Rein smiled, even though he couldn't see it. "Yes, focus on those feelings. When you find it, you'll definitely know."

It was just a few minutes later when he found it.

He was a bit more than surprised when he felt like he was looking into a silver and red ocean. He didn't realize he was falling, until he hit it.

He had his eyes closed in reflex, but there was no impact, just an odd feeling of falling into what felt like wet sand. He opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness. It wasn't completely dark, and he sluggishly turned around.

Suddenly, he was on solid ground, the area had changed into that of a sewer. Faintly, he realized that he was in a liquid, silvery but he could still see through it. Some of it was tainted red.

And suddenly, it all started to glow, brighter and brighter. He shut his eyes..

He opened his eyes, gasping.

He looked around. He was still in the field, although the sky was now tainted a dark orange, and the Cat-lady was walking up to him. Rein floated in front of him, happy. "Ahh, you're awake!"

Naruto blinked, "I fell asleep?"

The cat-lady nodded, "Yes, you've been asleep here for most of the day. Rein here was adamant about not waking you up, however."

Rein nodded, "Did you see anything similar to a puddle or a river?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head, a bit surprised, "I was only there for a minute or two, but i saw this weird ocean.. it was silver and red.. It was pretty cool now that i think about it. Then i was in a sewer..."

Rein blinked. She was a little shocked that he found an ocean, sure. The exercise was to help a person find their magic. A beginner's focus. The size of what they saw was pretty relative to their power, and oceans were rare. But a sewer? And that it was two colors was also a bit disturbing.

"Silver and red... hmm, that's a little unique, but now that you've found it, you can most definitely summon your Armor."

Naruto grinned. "Alright, lets do it!"

Rein smiled, his enthusiasm was somewhat infectious, "Mm, well..." She brought the book over, and it opened by itself. It settled on some pages that were blank. Before Naruto could comment about that, they started to glow, and words appeared on one of them.

Rein stood on the other, and pointed at them. "Now, I want you to read this out loud, while focusing on the ocean. Think about taking water from the ocean, and the more you take, the stronger the armor will be. Visualize how your armor looks, and pour the onto it when you finish reciting it."

Naruto nodded, and was about to recite the words, but Rein stopped him. "Before you get any ideas, don't take a lot of water. What you're taking is just a representation. Your armor is always active once you start it, and it takes up a percentage, not a set amount, of your mana. So for now, think small. More mana would make it a bit heavier as well."

"Hmm, I think i understand.. I'll give it a shot." Rein smiled, and nodded at him, backing up a bit.

Naruto read the chant.

"_Bestow upon me armor that knows not how to yield._"

Yuugao blinked at the odd.. language. But before she could think any further, Naruto was engulfed in a bright silver pillar light, soft specks of red dotting it. It extended up, and she would later swear that it reached the clouds.

It only lasted a few seconds, however, and when the light died down, Naruto was finally visible.

Yuugao's eyes widened in shock.

The ANBU looked around the entrance of Konoha, quite a bit in awe.

* * *

Craters and scorch marks littered the area. Corpses were mostly in half at the torso, sometimes the other half would be across the field. Several trees lining the path out had toppled, and a fire there had to also be put out.

Even Konoha's wall was dented and burnt, and they soon found Danzo's missing limb embedded in it.

It was written in the destruction that surrounded them, as they started their grim job of collecting the corpses of the traitors.

The Beast was here.

The first thing she noticed was what looked to be an ill-fitting trench coat.

* * *

Yuugao wanted to claw her eyes out.

It almost looked innocent. At the bottom, regular sandals and suprisingly, black pants. And then... her eyes wandered up.

It was huge, wide, and worst of all, the pure neon orange of it almost radiated around him like a halo. It was a neon orange poncho, completely covering him except for some of his legs.

Reinforce had simpler notions of taking several Starlight Breakers point blank to the face. It would have been a nicer fate.

"DISPEL, DISPEL OH GOD. IT BURNS." Rein cried, casting it over and over on Naruto until the unholy clothing vanished off of his body.

With the greatest weapon to any human being with eyes gone, Yuugao was able to focus some killing intent on the poor boy.

"Do. It. Over." Rein was next to her, nodding.

Poor Naruto almost soiled himself as he did it again. Girls are scary.

Quite a distance away, the Third Hokage felt as if he had dodged several kunai to his privates. He continued on his way with a new spring in his step.

* * *

It was a very bright white, yet at the bottom was a flame motif that seemed to be alive. It was similar, yet somewhat different to the Yondaime's iconic cape. However, it never quite reached around his torso fully. Instead, it was held by two wide pieces of metal, one at the collar and another at his waist, both baring the Konoha leaf symbol. It was incredibly similar to the Yondaime's own coat.

The rest of the outfit however, was somewhat odd. What seemed to be dark orange body armor that was very, very tight and melded with his body. It seemed to be lined with silver metal, accenting his 'muscles',

Lastly he wore black Hakama pants that ended in the same silver metal.

In all, Yuugao was somewhat expecting something far brighter. It was overly stylish, but he wasn't a ninja yet, so it would do.

What made her gasp was his face. His hair seemed longer, a little brighter, and some of it framed his face.

Outfit, whiskers and red eyes aside, he looked exactly like the Yondaime.

Yuugao had adored him when she was a Genin. Back then, he had been her inspiration, and thanks to it and her determination, she progressed through the ranks quite quickly, becoming one of the youngest, but quite respected ANBU, along with Uchiha Itachi.

Naruto stood there, looking over himself. Even Yuugao had to admit, he did look kind of cool. Although the outfit was a bit outlandish for someone so short.

"Naruto, that outfit is weird... but a little cool..." Rein stated, floating over to him.

"A little cool? You must mean SUPER AWESOME cool!" He said, dancing a little as he did so.

"I'm just happy that it's not eye-rending orange..." Yuugao muttered.

Apparently Naruto heard her, "Hey, Orange is the best color ever! But even I know that it's not a good color for a ninja!"

Rein tried to visualize Naruto's outfit in pure orange, and shuddered. 'I don't think I'll tell him that he can change his outfit's color..'

Naruto's stomach growled, "Hmm, I'm hungry... let's get some ramen!"

Rein agreed, "I haven't eaten since this morning..."

Yuugao stopped him, "Wait. You're going to have to change your outfit a bit before you go."

Naruto tilted his head, confused. "Eh, how come?"

"Well, for starters, it's illegal to wear a ninja headband, or similar, when you're not a ninja." She said, poking the two offending pieces of metal. "Getting rid of the symbols would be fine enough. Lastly, you also don't look like you..."

Naruto blinked at that. "I don't?"

Rein nodded, "Yeah, your hair got longer. That doesn't usually happen, though."

Yuugao produced a mirror from somewhere, and handed it to him. Naruto looked at himself and was already distracted. "Hehe, I look soo cool..."

"Narutoo.." Rein was losing her patience. Food awaited her!

"Fine, fine..." Naruto concentrated a bit, and the metal plates disappeared. Instead, just black pieces of cloth held the coat together. And finally his hair shortened and darkened to it's original tone. Yuugao smiled under her mask, and nodded, "That's fine. Shall we?"

Rein was already floating away, and Naruto chased after her, both shouting about food.

Yuugao just followed, grinning a bit.

Sarutobi sighed. Despite his injuries, he couldn't get away from his one true foe.

The mountain of paperwork he found in his office almost broke the battle hardened man.

Hiashi entered the room, caught sight of the huge amount of paperwork, and turned around almost immediately.

"Oh no you don't!" Said Sarutobi, who appeared next to him and pulled him back into the room, "You suffer with me."

"God, why? I have to go take care of my kids!" he said.

"A likely excuse. Lets get to work.."

Hiashi inwardly sobbed.

It was a calm, peaceful evening. The sun had already set, and few people were out, even though many stores were still open. It was quite cold, despite the namesake of the country. The few people who were out, were hurrying about to get their business done, and hopefully get inside a warmer area.

Yuugao wasn't uncomfortable, although it was mainly that the the ANBU armor protected her a lot from the elements.

Naruto, however, looked absolutely fine, which was a far cry from earlier in the day when he was shivering.

"But really.. this is amazing.." Naruto said, looking over his new outfit. "I know it's cold, i can even see my breath.. but it feels just like it's spring!"

Rein nodded, "Yep! Despite being such an easy spell, It's one of the most complicated ones ever created!"

Even Yuugao could agree with that, "Of course, one's first thought would be their own comfort, so they devote themselves to that."

Naruto's look turned somewhat somber, as he looked down at his suit again. Looking up, he ran ahead, "Ahh, I see Ichiraku's!" he said.

Rein just floated with Yuugao, watching him. "Hey, what's your name?"

Yuugao blinked, and looked down at the girl, "Ahh.. you should really call me Cat, as it's my designation for now. I'll tell you my name when my mask is off."

Rein nodded, "Hm, alright. Tell me, Cat-san, is this really a village of ninjas? Or some kind of elaborate illusion?"

Yuugao halted, turning to her. "Excuse me?" she said, part curt and part confused.

Rein frowned, "The book hasn't been here long, so one of the first things it does is get information on the area it is in. It's a complex piece of programming, but weak in the fact that it can only get surface information. I know this is a village of ninja, one of the largest."

Yuugao nodded, and Rein continued. "What the spell cannot do, is break barriers. Think of it as a telescope. It can look in any direction and can compile the information it sees to get a general feel. It's not all hard facts, but it's still far better than nothing."

"But what do you mean by illusion?"

"Well... We can tell that apart from this village, there are several other villages, continents, and such. I could tell you what's on the other side of the world, but.."

However, Rein was interrupted by an irate Naruto, yelling at them from near the stand. "Oy, what's taking you so long! Come on!"

Rein tilted her head and smiled, "I guess we'll have to talk later about this."

Yuugao could barely say anything before rein flew after Naruto, admonishing him for being so loud.

She shook her head and walked after them.

* * *

A knock on the door.

"Come in!" both the Hokage and Hiashi chorused.

"Ahh, excuse me, Hokage-sama.." said the nameless chuunin.

Neither of them looked up from the paperwork, and Sarutobi answered, "Yes, what is it.." he said, finishing one page before looking up.

And up.

And up.

It was a feat of chakra control that would have made Tsunade a bit green with envy. Green like a tree.

Stacks upon stacks of paperwork were in the chuunin's hands. He strained to keep them all upright as he carried them to his desk. The chuunin would remain nameless as Sarutobi could not even see his face behind the mass of paper.

Sarutobi, slack-jawed, absently tugged on Hiashi's robe, forcing the man to look up, annoyed. "What is ..."

The chuunin sat the paperwork onto the desk, the wood creaking at the indignity of it all. He collapsed at the spot, panting.

"Oh hell no.." Hiashi muttered. Slowly he snuck behind the quietly crying Hokage, slid the window-door open just enough to fit through and attempted to jump out the window.

Sarutobi caught him at the balcony, before the man could leap off to freedom.

"Oh god no, please-"

"Take me with you, old friend."

Hiashi had not been so relieved in his life as both he and Sarutobi left the office for the night, leaving clones to listen to the chuunin who had proceeded to rattle off more appointments for the evening.

Not too far from their location, at the Interrogation building, an unconscious Danzo smiled slightly.

* * *

Rein was flying quite fast after Naruto, who had entered the stand already.

"Old man, twenty bowls of miso!"

It was completely understandable that she'd be surprised enough to fly right into the shop, her mouth ajar as she gaped at Naruto.

"Oh, good even-"

Even if Naruto had planned it, it could not have possibly gone better. Or worse, depending on who you were.

Rein, still flying, flew right into the chest of one Ayame Ichiraku, who was already bringing his first of twenty. Rein was flying somewhat fast, so Ayame lost her balance, falling backwards.

Rein was only able to let out a small "Oof" before a flying bowl of ramen hit her, soaking her in the hot broth and covering her in noodles. It was hot enough hat she was startled out of her flght, and landed on a fallen Ayame, who had thankfully not hit anything on the way down. She rolled off of the startled girl who's only bruise was her ego, and couldn't say anything before the bowl landed on her, top down, yet still filled with most of the ramen.

Naruto, somewhere in the back of his young mind, was somewhat jealous that she could get a ramen bath. That was quickly squashed by the part that was laughing way too much.

Rein's screams of indignation were completely muffled by the bowl. Something about her hair and ramen.

Ayame was just confused as she looked at what just seemed to be a screaming ramen bowl that, for all purposes and intents, was trying to get away from Naruto.

Teuchi had already walked in, looked at the bowl, and walked out, muttering about having to throw away some sake.

Yuugao walked into the chaos, and after one look, suppressed the all-powerful need to rub her forehead in hopes to get rid of the incoming headache.

Rein finally popped the bowl over, and floated up, dripping in ramen.

"Ack, I'm slimy..." she said, before an odd feeling of doom fell upon her. Despite her armor, she shivered, wondering why it felt so cold.

In front of her? No, there was just some girl looking at her oddly. To the left was a man emptying a bottle of sake. To the right, a wall.

'Ah, behind me!' She thought, and slowly turned around.

And there was Naruto. Staring at her with somewhat intense red eyes. His mouth hung open, and a little drool came out.

Rein flinched back a little. His whisker marks seemed a bit more pronounced too.

She couldn't help herself when he lurched forward slightly, grinning. She yelped.

He seemed to like that and she yelped again.

"RAMEN!"

He leaped at her. She screamed and flew away, dodging him. He leaped again, but this time, mouth and tongue first.

Rein's eyebrow twitched as she dodged him again. And again, and again. Ayame had already gotten out of the way, and seemed to be in a little shock.

Naruto stopped. "Can't I at least have a taste? Stop dodging!"

Rein did stop. However, Naruto couldn't move. He looked down at the odd pink rings of light that binded him. "Eh?"

"_Master.. Is a world-class idiot. Tank Shield._"

"**DIVINE BUSTER!**"

Teuchi sighed, "ANBU-san, as much as he deserved that..."

Yuugao sighed, "Yes, I'll be sure that the Hokage gets the bill."

* * *

Naruto sat at his normal stool, eating a bowl of ramen happily. When questioned, he said he couldn't remember anything other than walking into the stand. He did wonder why There was an entire section of the bar missing.

On the counter, between him and Yuugao, was Rein, who has a bowl the same size. Naruto had said earlier that she smelled like Ramen. Rein just made sure that she was closer to Yuugao than him.

Yuugao was staring at her incredulously. She had already somehow put down 3 poor bowls. Naruto was one thing.. But Rein was a foot tall!

As Yuugao's mind wrapped in a Celtic knot trying to figure out the how and the how, Ayame was just smiling at the girl, with a small blush on her face.

"Ahh, she's cute..."

Naruto paused, "Bah, she's not cute..."

Ayame giggled as Rein pelted Naruto with little pink bolts before finishing her own ramen. "Ahhh, It's so good..." she said, picking up a noodle and nibbling on it softly.

Naruto nodded, "Yep, old man Ichiraku makes the best ramen!" This, Rein agreed on.

Ayame finally noticed Naruto, "Oh, hey Naruto, almost didn't see you there. So squirt, where did you get those neat clothes from? Looks kind of cool.. kind of..."

Naruto put down his bowl, pouting, "Nee-chan, I'm not a squirt!"

"Yes you are, ramen-fiend!" Rein just had to add her two ryou into this.

"If I'm a squirt, you're squirtier!"

Yuugao's bowl slammed down hard, startling both of them. Her voice made both of them shiver. "Another bowl, please."

Ayame smiled, replacing her bowl, "So, Naruto, clothes?"

"Oh, ahh.. I kind of made them!"

Ayame blinked. In an round-about way of thinking, that made sense. Who sold clothes like that, in those colors?

"Right... and I supposes this one here is yours too?" she said, poking Rein lightly, who giggled.

Naruto looked at Rein oddly, "Ahh, right! This is Reinforce! She's a computer that casts spells and other cool and awesome things! She's annoying though..."

_"Divine Shooter."_

Naruto yelped in pain as he was pelted by many more pink balls of light.

Rein stopped, and looked at Ayame, "Hm, you can see me clearly?" she said, just realizing that fact.

Naruto blinked, and tilted his head, "Ne, can't anyone see you?"

"Hm, no one seemed to notice her while we were walking here."

Rein nodded, "Yeah, I have a spell active that wouldn't let anyone without an active linker core see me unless I allowed it... and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to see me clearly."

Yuugao nodded to herself, still eating her ramen. A question answered.

Ayame was confused, but shrugged, "You're about a foot tall, wearing not much but a black camisole and some black spats. Other than that, I can't make out your face very well, and your hair color keeps changing."

Rein blinked, looked at Ayame, and blinked again. "How's that?"

Ayame's eyes widened, as rein seemed to snap into 'focus'. "Eh, I can see you completely now.. you're even cuter!"

"Mou, I keep saying she's no-" Naruto quickly shut up and went back into his ramen when Rein pointed a finger at him.

"Ahh, he can be trained!" Rein said, and she, Ayame and even Yuugao chuckled.

Rein smiled up at Ayame, "Hmm, How old are you?"

"Hm, thirteen, why?"

"Ahh, just under the limit. How would you like to learn magic?"

Everyone just looked at Rein, gaping slightly.

Except for Naruto, he was too busy eating.

Naruto set down his bow, frowning at the small stack of bowls on the counter. Only seven were there, eight including the one he just set down.

He blinked as Ayame brought him another bowl.

To her horror, he shook his head, "I'm... full?"

Ayame backed away, slowly.

Teuchi, who was pouring out more sake, desperately tried to save it.

Naruto blinked, "What?"

Rein tilted her head, "You've never been full before?"

Naruto shook his head, "Well, yeah, but not so soon.."

Rein blinked, "Oh, well I guess your body might be changing a little to accommodate your magic.. So maybe you'll need less food from now on..."

Naruto started crying. "Less Ramen...?"

Rein just sighed.

* * *

Rein was floating next to Naruto, uncharacteristically silent. They were almost to his new home, and Naruto was playing around his armor more as they neared the small forest surrounding it. He had found out that he could alter and change his clothes and hair almost at will, though changing the hair was very tingly.

Rein landed on his shoulder, yawning. "Hmm, I want to see the Hokage later about something..."

Yuugao nodded, "Hm, alright, I'll be sure to give him a message. When should he really expect you?"

Rein yawned, floating up to his hair, "Mm, in the morning."

Yuugao nodded, saying nothing. 'Hm, knowing Hokage-sama, he must have already skipped out on his paperwork, so he probably would end up having to do it in the morning.'

Rein fell asleep in Naruto's hair much to his indignation. But instead of complaining, he just kept his head steady.

The ANBU and the container went to his home in silence.

'I'll see you here in the morning. Don't destroy the house. Don't eat out the Ramen.'

So said the note left by the Hokage. It was left right where Naruto couldn't miss it, on the cabinet with the ramen.

Naruto blinked and shrugged, He yawned.

Yuugao smiled under her mask at him, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe you should get to sleep then?"

Naruto nodded. Yuugao blinked, she was expecting him to try to stay up like many kids, but he did seem genuinely sleepy.

"Good night.." He yawned out, making his way upstairs.

Yuugao didn't notice that he was very slightly leaving an afterimage, despite how slow he walked.

The tome, in it's necklace form, was glowing as well.

She locked the front door before taking her post on the roof of the house, and looked up into the sky.

"Hm, another cloudless night. Ah, I wonder what that girl was talking about, anyway..."

Entering the bedroom, Naruto was already wondering what to do with the sleeping girl on his head. She was too small to go in the bed with him; here he shuddered at accidentally rolling on her. Not in fear of crushing her, but in fear of what she'd do to him.

The bed had plenty of pillows, however, so he just took one of them and gently laid her on it, then put the pillow on the dresser next to the bed. He softly took off his necklace and laid it next to her.

Unknowing to him, his armor had already changed to something for him to sleep in as he climbed into the bed and promptly fell asleep.

Being asleep, neither Rein or Naruto noticed the tome changing into it's book form, and quietly flipped pages, glowing lightly.

* * *

Sarutobi and Hiashi both enjoyed their impromptu short vacation to the fullest. Both were at Hiashi's house, and it was already ten in the evening as both happily got plastered.

"A magic tome? That's crazy!" Hiashi laughed.

Sarutobi laughed as well, "I swear.. it's true! It even talks and shit..." He hiccuped softly, before grabbing another bottle.

"And then what happened?" Hiashi hiccuped, and didn't notice that a young girl had entered the room.

Sarutobi didn't either. "Well there was all this glowy shit and.. and... more glowing light and stuff.."

Hiashi just kept laughing.

Hyuuga Hinata was experiencing her first state of shock. Right there in the room was her father and some old man. The old man was cursing and ranting a little about a book and something she saw in her ramen, but the real shock was her father.

He was laughing! Hyuuga Hiashi never laughed! He smirked at you in his superiority, or grunted in acceptance, maybe, but never laughed!

Despite not being in the academy yet, Hinata was already being taught a lot about ninja. One of the biggest points her father always made was to observe, collect and use information to it's fullest.

So, as she sat down, hidden from the two jovial men, she pulled out a notepad and started writing everything the old man was saying. She's heard many of them before from other Hyuuga. Maybe that's what made her father laugh so much?

Another set of sentences and another bout of laughter.

Eight year old Hyuuga Hinata nodded to herself as she wrote down everything the old man said. Those words just had to be it!

* * *

It's a well-known fact that Uzumaki Naruto does not wake up easily. Despite the bright sunlight shining through the window perfectly resting on his face, he did not so much as stir.

No matter that the chilly morning air came in through the opened window, he did not stir, despite his uncovered state.

No, what woke him up was usually his dreams turning to ramen, and then his stomach telling him to acquire it.

It was definitely not a very young looking girl, who was shorter than him, who had her arms wrapped around him _tightly_ as she stirred in her sleep, her legs over his.

Wait, what?

Naruto blinked awake, and looked down.

Yes, there was indeed a young girl, with a lot of red hair, in what just seemed to be a tight black tank-top and tights, sleeping next to him, and in fact using him as an expendable teddy bear.

Yuugao actually did fall from the roof when the scream scared birds away from the nearby trees, but luckily for her she was able to land on her feet, before shaking her head to rid it of that insufferable ringing.

Inside his room, the tome had long stopped glowing.

/-/-/ End of chapter.

I originally thought of leaving all the spell names in German, and translating some of the chants I'd make into German, but then I realized that I hate that crap with unfamiliar jutsu in most Naruto fanfics. So English for now.


	3. Welcome to the Mechanical Forest

Welcome to the Mechanical Forest

Chapter 3 of Silent the Universe

This is clearly a few weeks later, I'll not have anyone tell me otherwise! Really!

* * *

It was a very nice morning, Hinata thought.

The sky was a calming dark blue, growing lighter as time passed. The only clouds in the sky were in the far horizon, hovering just above the tree line. Somewhere there were probably birds singing and squirrels dancing and what-not.

However, more importantly the little girl was following two large, grown men. One was her father, whom she recently had to rethink her views of. The other was the most important person in the village, the Hokage.

She was quite a distance away from them as she slowly followed them through a forest.

She was no tracker by any means, couldn't smell them like a dog (or an Inuzuka), nor did she have bugs or another animal to track them. She most certainly did not have a summon creature telling her where they were, and it was a testament to her unusual chakra capacity that she was able to keep on hopping through the canopy instead of on the ground.

No, she was tracking them through her Byakugan, the eyes that exist within all of the Hyuuga. Classified as a Rank SS Bloodline limit in the Bingo Book, it is one of the more feared bloodlines, for none could truly exist and hide from their eyes for long.

Usually children in the Hyuuga clan could not truly use it at Hinata's age. However, she didn't know this. She didn't know a lot of things about it actually.

Like why her veins don't show up when it's active. Or why it's so difficult to turn off. Or why her eyes glowed, or why-

Well, that train of thought had halted when she noticed that the two she was following had reached a clearing with a modestly small house in it. She slowed her hopping and decided to drop down to the ground, where there would be more cover.

And before she even started to them again, she saw something that was just... amazing.

And deep within her, she swore she heard something click.

* * *

'Hm, well this hasn't ever happened to me before…'

'Oh, it's morning...'

'I wonder if it's too early for ramen.'

'Oh my.'

One should never say that Naruto wasn't a fast or even complex thinker.

As he flew out the window, directly over the head of Yuugao, however, the most prominent of all his thoughts was pretty simple.

'Oh shit.'

A few feet from the ground, he felt it.

A tide of power leaking from the space he so recently vacated.

Gasping, he turned around in mid-air, and dodged the round, red projectile.

"PERVERT! WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN MY BED!?"

Naruto frowned, alert but tired. "Oy, that's my be-"

Another small red ball dodged. The fiery girl was holding an odd, long mallet, and yet something in his gut told him not to underestimate it. In her other hand she held some metal balls.

'Oh, she was hitting them with the hammer...' was his thought, as he examined her.

He ducked another ball, 'Oh damn she's fast with those!' he thought, moving aside. His eyes widened as he ducked, as the three balls now hovered around in the air.

He could only barely hear the whispered words though, as he was concentrating on ducking the now free-flying balls of indignant justice.

"Water Release, Great Breakthrough."

Naruto watched in some awe (almost getting clipped by one of those speeding balls in the process) as suddenly water swirled around the ANBU, before a powerful looking stream of it jetted right at the girl. The girl turned at the ANBU in anger, noting the water dragon.

"What the hell..." was all she said before she decided to get rid of the wet dragon.

However, before she even lifted her hammer, she was quickly bound by large bands that glowed yellow, pinning her arms to her sides and forcing her to drop her mallet.

Rein was sitting on her shoulder, frowning. She looked at the water dragon as it sped to the hole in the wall, and it suddenly seemed to collide with the air, expending itself before it reached the house.

She looked around, sighing. The girl wasn't struggling, but Rein wasn't paying attention to that as she had spotted Naruto.

Naruto who was floating above them.

He blinked at the sight of Rein sitting on the crazy girl's shoulder. Conveniently, her mouth was also bound, so she could only look at him meanly. He was sure that he was melting. Or roasting. He shivered slightly.

"Ehh, morning Rein..."

The girl in question smiled, "Morning Naruto. You know, I'm always looking up to you, but today it seems that I'm doing so even more than usual."

He blinked. "Huh?"

Naruto looked at Rein, and indeed, the hole that he flew out of was indeed below him. And it was on the second story of the house.

"Naruto-kun?" Said a familiar voice. He turned around and spotted his favorite Hokage, with a man he didn't know. Who was also below him.

On the ground.

The ground?

He looked down.

'Oh dear.'

Rein giggled as he panicked and fell into a frantic Yuugao's arms. She could remember lots of trainees that did the same thing.

She smiled. Life was good.

* * *

Naruto blushed lightly as Yuugao carried him inside, followed by the Hokage and his guest. Rein and the redhead had disappeared from the hole in the wall of the bedroom, before a large pink ring with designs on it appeared. Slowly, the very edges of the hole started to glow pink as well before seeming to grow inwards.

He just blinked at the odd sight, and inwardly shrugged. Magic was weird.

Cool, very much so yes, but weird.

* * *

Naruto and Yuugao were in the kitchen, making breakfast. Rein had shouted that she was coming down in a bit, so at the request of the Hokage, he and Yuugao were stuck with kitchen duty.

Yuugao actually proved to be a pretty good cook, Naruto thought. She handled the ramen noodles (there is no other breakfast) with impressive grace, and she prepared the other food, such as waffles and eggs with odd speed and accuracy.

Naruto didn't comment on it.

For all of a minute.

"Wow, you're pretty good at cooking, cat-san..."

The woman turned to him, and he could have sworn the porcelain mask was blushing lightly. But that would have made no sense, even to Naruto.

"Eh! Um... thanks... you're no slouch yourself."

Naruto nodded, smiling, "Ahh, other than Ichiraku ramen, I couldn't really get meals anywhere else. I was able to get ingredients pretty easily though, so I just... uhh... found a cookbook and tried it out myself."

Yuugao frowned under her mask, "Mm, still, to be able to cook this well, you could easily open a restaurant when you're older."

Naruto blinked, "Mmm, a restaurant?"

The ANBU nodded, "Yeah. I was thinking of opening one myself once I was done with the ANBU..." she said, looking a little far off as she flipped some eggs.

"Eh? You don't want to stay a ninja? But they're so cool!"

Yuugao almost giggled. His enthusiasm was quite infectious, but it faded away as she looked at him again.

"Maa, yeah we are cool. However, Naruto-kun, the life of a ninja... It's not easy, forgiving, or fair. Ninja see things everyday that would drive many insane. In fact, many ninja do indeed go insane, especially in other, less kind villages."

Naruto's attention was directly on her, so she continued.

"We have to keep secrets that can ruin nations, destroy lives on the orders of others, capture that goddamn cat every other week..."

'...Cat?'

"... We do a lot of things that we can't be forgiven for. In the end, we are tools that happily serve our nation." Yuugao looked at him almost expectantly, "Could you live with yourself, Naruto, if you had to commit atrocities to the highest bidder's whim?"

Naruto frowned. But inside, his resolve hardly wavered.

"But, as a Ninja, I can protect those closest to me. As a Ninja, I can gain power not to use, but to keep others from harming those precious to me... I'll become Hokage, and gain everyone's respect..." he said.

On the inside, Yuugao sighed. His heart was almost in the right place. Outwardly though, she nodded.

"You have a good sense, Naruto-kun. Maybe you will be an exceptional ninja..."

He grinned up at her, "Heh, I'll be the best. Believe it."

She almost did.

* * *

"Cute brat."

Reinforce nodded, a holographic screen that had held a view of Naruto and Yuugao as they cooked fading away silently.

"Yes, he's quite confident in himself and determined. Almost to arrogance."

"Almost, but not quite. A bit selfish, hm? I guess we'll beat that out of him..."

Rein rolled her eyes, "He's also six. A kid. Kids are naturally selfish."

"Relax, we'll beat that out of him too."

"But what do you ireally/i think, Vita?"

The girl now identified as Vita frowned as she lightly flexed her muscles, the rest of the bindings around her breaking and fading instantly.

"Mm, I think your binds are still pathetic."

Reinforce glared.

"Hey, I'm trying, alright! I'm more suited for destructive spells, you know that!"

Vita just sighed, shaking her head.

"Even so, If you could immobilize an enemy, accuracy doesn't become an issue, especially for your slower spells.

Reinforce just gave a cute little 'hmmph' and crossed her arms, floating in front of Vita like she was sitting in a luxurious chair.

"Who needs accuracy when you can just throw a spell large enough that they couldn't possibly dodge! Hehehe..."

Vita just groaned as the mini-girl giggled almost erotically at the thought of large, explosive spells.

"I think that girl rubbed off on you a bit too much..." she mumbled under her breath as Rein giggled to herself.

* * *

Vita walked down the stairs, her war hammer slung over her shoulder casually. Floating right behind her was Rein, who was also carrying the Tome in its necklace form.

Naruto and Yuugao just made it out of the kitchen as they entered the dining room where the Hokage and his companion were chatting.

Said companion actually blinked as he caught sight of Rein. Both she and Vita took places at the table (really more of Rein sitting in front of where Naruto would probably sit). Vita looked at the Hokage, only just noticing him.

"... Old."

Rein almost wanted to shoot her. No, she did want to shoot her. A lot. But Naruto wouldn't like that.

The Hokage chuckled, but Naruto walked in before he could give the girl a reply.

Naruto caught sight of her and retreated, his eyes wide. Yuugao pushed him back into the dining room despite his protests. Vita grinned in amusement.

Naruto put the food on the table before taking the farthest seat from the redhead as possible. Which just happened to be where Rein was sitting.

"Oh, good morning."

Rein nodded.

Vita blinked, where did his unnatural terror go?

Yuugao just sighed.

Just another morning.

* * *

Rein floated up a bit, catching everyone's attention. "Alright, I may as well introduce you all because a certain someone lacks the manners to do so..."

Vita looked indignant but didn't get a chance to open her mouth

"This is Vita. She is a brat, but happens to be probably the strongest brat I know. Her hammer is _Graf Eisen_-" "_Guten Morgen_!" "... And she will be one of Naruto's guardians and teachers."

"Eh, there's going to be more?"

"We'll get to that in a bit, Naruto..."

The Hokage's companion took his silent cue. "Good morning. My name is Hyuuga Hiashi, head of the Hyuuga clan of Konoha."

Sarutobi nodded, "Hiashi is a very good and longtime friend of mine."

Rein smiled, "Pleased to meet you!"

Vita blinked as she stared at the Hyuuga. The normally stotic man almost fidgeted under it. 'Eerie…'

"Is something the matter?" he asked.

"... So you're old too?"

This time, Rein did shoot her.

* * *

She limped through the ruined streets, barefooted and bleeding heavily. The air was heavy with smoke and the scent of blood. Screams rose and fell all around her.

She didn't know what massacre meant until today. All around her in various ruined buildings were people she knew being killed or devoured.

Those... _monsters_ came from nowhere.

Her hair, red as the blood that covered her, was matted and soaked with that of her parents. Her eyes were empty as she stumbled and fell, lying face down and clutching something to her chest.

And slowly, a creature came, shuffling closer to her fallen form. At this time of night, one couldn't readily identify it as any normal animal. Truly, one would even be hard pressed to call it a demon.

Blood dripped from its fangs and claws as it edged closer, others joining it.

One thing went through what could be called their 'minds'.

'Fresh Meat...'

There were three of them. The girl was crying as she heard them come closer. She gripped whatever she was holding hard enough that it started to cut into her palm.

One of them leapt through the air, no grace or care in its movements, only hunger and savagery.

It was cut down, a blade cutting it in two, then four almost instantly.

The pieces of the beast rained down around the man who now stood in front the girl.

The girl sat up, her blood-stained face looking up at the back of the man who saved her.

While it was quite dark, the nearby fires were at least enough to give her some details, such as his incredibly long hair. He wore some nondescript clothes, nothing overly flamboyant.

His sword was dripping, and hissing with the vile purple blood of the slayed creature. In seconds, the blade was a ruined mess. He dropped it seemingly in disgust as the next creature started to approach.

More were coming, as some shambled out of the broken buildings, some with corpses in their maws.

Another rushed the man, only to be impaled by a flaming spike of earth.

The man looked behind her.

She noticed his pale skin, and sniffed as she looked behind her.

It was another man, his hands rising from the ground it seemed.

She could easily see a huge mane of white hair. He was fairly large, larger than the one closer to her.

There was an odd squelching sound from the man next to her, but when she turned, he had disappeared.

And another beast was destroyed.

The two were destroying the beasts almost effortlessly, huge spires of rock impaled them, the man's sword slicing them effortlessly, or they were utterly vaporized by a flaming, spinning ball formed in the larger one's hand.

A creature she did not see caught her in the side. It was only luck that it hit her with what could be called its arm, instead of its claws.

Still, her world was pain as her ribs broke, and she was sent flying through the air by the blow.

It was not luck that she landed next to another creature, who seemed to salivate at the sight of the young girl just landing at its feet.

She gripped what looked to be her necklace as they slew the creature that attacked her.

She didn't close her eyes as she saw the creature open its mouth to devour her.

She didn't hear their yells as they tried to reach her in time.

As the blood dripped fangs neared her, the sounds of the flames around her, the creatures breathing, everything went silent.

And in that moment, she only heard that voice.

"_Defenser Plus_"

* * *

The yellow shield that appeared out of nowhere seemed to have not just bounced the creature away, but even severely injure it. It was tossed bodily right through the nearby building, which then handily collapsed on it.

The girl, inside the shield had seemingly passed out, but the yellow barrier remained.

Both men approached the shield warily, and very cautiously, the larger one tapped on it.

Nothing happened.

"Hmm, against those... things only, eh?" His voice was oddly boisterous, no arrogance, but naturally loud.

"Quite ingenious... I've never seen anything like it." Almost the other man's opposite, his was quiet and cunning, His voice was almost feminine, but not quite.

But before either could say more, a monster decided to leap at their supposedly vulnerable backs.

They merely stepped to the side, and the creature instead hit the shield, almost frying to death at the contact. A quick decapitation at what was hoped to be the head and its pained cries ceased.

In a silent agreement between the two men, the white-haired one stayed by the barrier as the other made quick work of the rest of the monsters.

True to his prediction, the shield flickered out.

Immediately the pale man went in and scooped the unconscious girl into his arms. He noticed the odd, glowing necklace, and took it as well.

"I'll take this one back with me. You're more suited for cleaning here, Jiraiya."

The larger man grumbled, "I clean bodies, Orochimaru, not entire villages. Swamp of the Underworld doesn't extend that far,

Orochimaru grinned, "Ahh, but if you replace the rat seal with the bird, and the dog with the rabbit, you can at least quadruple the area of effect, for only about three ti-"

Jiraiya palmed his face, "I can't believe you reverse engineered that jutsu. I'm sure you've only seen it twice..."

The snake sannin shrugged. Turning to leave, "I'll be at the Sound. Inform me when you're done...

The Frog sannin had already started his grim task of burying the entire town.

Orochimaru and his charge melted into mud.

* * *

Reinforce stood in the middle of the cleared breakfast table, looking at everyone.

"Alright, I guess some explanations are in order. I'll get straight to it."

She settled and with a wave of her hand, Naruto's pendant floated to the middle of the table, changing into the familiar tome, which looked as if it was just pressed.

"The tome is old. Very, very old. Many think that it was created, but instead it was... refurbished for lack of a better term. Due to its age, it can sense its surroundings at a far deeper level than most."

"So you're saying that you're super-old?" Naruto's foot made an appearance in his mouth again.

Rein's eyebrow twitched, but answered anyway. "No, in fact, all of us who reside inside the book are relatively new additions to it. "

Naruto nodded, but looked confused, "But, Rein-chan, aren't you the book?"

Rein sighed, "Well, that was because of the last master's decision. It's a little more complicated than this, but we can say that I'm the master of the book and everyone in it, and you're my master, so by proxy you also have access to the book."

Naruto nodded, "Oh, I see, you're the book's master's master so that makes me the book's master too!"

Rein smiled at him, nodding, before she continued.

"However, the book, before I came along, did not have a personality at all. Even after I came, there was a huge period of where the book was suffering some corruption and caused several incidents. During that, we met our last master, and I came into being. The problem however is that the book itself predates even me, and it took an incredible amount of time to figure out how to crack this book open."

Rein sighed. This was going to be difficult to get across to a society that hasn't reached space yet.

Holding out her hand, she projected a hologram of a standard universal map. Everyone except Vita and the Sandaime gasped. Not that he wasn't shocked, but he was more curious as to what it was."

"This is a universe." she said, "To make sure you understand the scale that I am trying to convey..."

The 2d image changed, seemingly zooming in until a small, green square could be seen. It kept zooming into it at an impressive speed, stars and planets zooming faster than anyone could follow. After a few minutes, it finally stopped. Naruto was gaping at the awesome. This was WAY cooler than those dinky paper maps he had before.

"And this is the planet we currently reside on. Universes are... well they are, to put simply, huge. Larger than a single human could imagine. This is just one planet in billions, one star in billions, one moon in billions. And all of this, like in any universe, started from one small spark, many millions of years ago to count."

Rein sighed. "In our universe, which is about the same age as this one, the book had finally given up an approximate time period as to when it was created. It... suggests that the book was created far before the universe we came from was created."

Silence.

Naruto blinked, "But... that doesn't make much sense..."

The Sandaime sighed, "I would believe that that should be impossible..."

Rein nodded, "Yep. A lot of the functions I'm using right now, to even show you your own universe is beyond everything in any other device known to us."

Naruto blinked, "More functions of the tome?" Rein nodded.

Hiashi nodded, "I believe I understand. But a question remains, how did you arrive here?"

Rein and Vita frowned, but instead of answering she held out her hand again.

"A universe is not solitary. There are an infinite number of them. Our current theory is that they all have their origins in one singular moment. Our guess is just creation. As people, entities, and just plain luck have a hand in things, more and more universes are created. There is a universe where we never arrived, or a universe where you don't exist. All of these universes exist."

The current holographical map zoomed back out to a universal view, and it flattened, going paper thin. Another map formed just above it, just as thin, but had a greenish hue to it.

"We come from another universe. We arrived here about... forty years ago, practically dead."

Jiraiya panted softly, watching the village sink into the black mud. Orochimaru was correct about the chakra use of it.

It was a simple enough day. Despite Orochimaru's defection from Konoha, he knew that the snake freak wasn't all that bad. Pissed that his student got the position of Hokage, sure.

He thought back to when Sarutobi informed him as to why he defected. He acted surprised then, but what no one knew was that he had aided Orochimaru in gaining his guinea pigs.

While Sarutobi and Minato were putting their efforts into the war, internally other forces in Konoha were slowly trying to time a coup d'état with the end of the Hidden War. Danzo was ambitious, but foolhardy to think that Jiraiya, one of the most renowned spymasters wouldn't have spies in Konoha itself.

So, slowly during and after the war ended, he and Orochimaru came to an agreement. Orochimaru wanted specimens, and Jiraiya wanted justice. People started disappearing, seemingly random civilians, and a few ninja here and there. They all wound up in Orochimaru's secret hidden lab of doom, where Jiraiya was perfectly happy not knowing what he was doing with them.

Some of these people Jiraiya were glad to put down there, however. In fact, some of them were not even on the list that had first been organized. He and his spies within Konoha had discovered what was the making of a child slavery ring, but while he was able to abduct many of its leaders, he knew it would only truly fall if he got its leader. Who was not based in Konoha.

However he never had time to do any investigation on the matter, as Orochimaru had been caught almost red-handed by the Sandaime himself. He left the village himself, vowing for its 'destruction' in front of the Sandaime before fleeing.

He was only able to track him down a year later, in his newly formed Village of the Sound. Honestly, while forming a village underground was a decent idea, he found it too dark and gloomy for his tastes.

He almost received a kunai to the nads when he asked if it was so that he could write his emo poetry in peace. He left after that, wishing him well.

Jiraiya chuckled darkly, looking upon the fallen, broken village. All in all, it had been a peaceful couple of years. Well, barring the Kyuubi incident of course.

Then these monsters seemed to appear out of nowhere, striking at minor towns and villages. He and Orochimaru hadn't seen each other in years, and yet the fire and death called them to the ruined village, which was overrun by the...

It would have been an insult to demons to call them such. They were _monsters_; their very forms did not even follow any form of logic. Even moving seemed to cause them to roar and bellow in pain, even as they feasted on men, women and children.

And yet they were powerful enough to destroy a small village, and moved as a group, protecting each other.

They were easy to kill. Despite their forms, they did not have as much strength as a chuunin, and were almost as slow as villagers. The only problems were their numbers, which then jutsu helped against immensely.

Jiraiya shook his head, this day may haunt him for the rest of his years, but now he had a new priority. Finding out where these things came from, and exterminating them.

And finishing his research. To be interrupted in the middle of his research was unforgiveable.

He would talk with Orochimaru later.

The last of the village sank under the ground, and a wide area of barren-looking ground remained. Jiraiya said a quick prayer, and vanished.

* * *

The Sandaime's eyes widened, "I remember now, forty years ago... It was said that the sky had all but disappeared for three minutes. It never happened again..."

He remembered that day. Several people, citizens and ninja alike, died from a heart attack. At the same time, a great number of people had said that the sky seemed to change completely for a few minutes before going normal. Few recorded their comments, thinking they were mad.

"Practically dead?"

Rein bowed her head, and Vita stood and left the room. Rein sighed, looking after her.

"She's not over it still... something iwrong/i has been happening in our universe. Entire sections disappeared over the course of a week. Planets, Stars, even regular space dust, all gone, like it was cut away."

As she spoke, every map except for the green hued one vanished, and it expanded wider, giving a visual idea of what she said. Sections of the map simply faded away, darkening to black.

"Our old master was part of a mission to investigate just what could cause such... destruction isn't even a word for it. I think that erasure would be more appropriate. There was no debris, no radiation, and no known reason. Until that day. We were at the edge of one of the galaxies right before one of the erasure zone."

Rein sighed, now looking at the map in longing.

"We detected an absolute massive amount of energy of a type that we couldn't even classify. And then, just seconds later, almost the entire fleet was gone. Consumed by imassive/i crimson orbs of energy. Of fifty-seven ships, twelve remained from that initial assault. Then, the creatures came. Almost hundreds of them assaulted us. "

The universal map vanished, and instead appeared a larger, three-dimensional hologram of the creature. It radiated a deep red aura that covered it head to toe. It was almost dragon-like, except it was far more anthromorphic. It seemed to hover on an odd wing formation that formed out of its back, and it was clearly bipedal. Its chest had armor that spiked out to the sides. The creature was clearly almost perfectly built for war.

"We were wiped out easily. No match for those things. They moved through space in ways not thought possible and at incredible speeds. Whatever shots we hit it with, they just brushed it off. Too late did we notice one firing at us."

Rein looked ready to cry, but instead was shaking. "Our master summoned us into the book and casted some of the most powerful shielding spells I'd ever seen. In that moment, We had more protection than most iplanets/i."

At that point, Reinforce smiled a little. "Our old master... she was powerful. After shielding us, she flew right out into space, through the ruined ship, unlocked every single one of her limiters, and started to rain destruction on those... things as we watched, unable to do anything. She was just buying us time to transfer us out of there.

Mages aren't made for combat in space. To shield themselves from the vacuum already costs them an incredible amount of energy, up to even half of what they have is consumed just to keep them alive. In that time and with that limit, our master had ruined at least twelve of the beasts before..."

Rein took a deep breath, the hologram of the beast fading. "Something went wrong with the transfer spell, and we were transferred incorrectly here. It was most likely because she... died... before it went through."

"We ended up reaching here, and we were heavily damaged by the transfer and from falling through the atmosphere. We stayed in stasis until Naruto-kun here found us."

Rein looked down, "And now, we have reason to believe that those same creatures are also starting to act here."

Rein panicked a little when she saw both the Sandaime and Hiashi pale even further.

"Ahh, no no, nothing like those creatures from before. Smaller, far more inferior ones. Human-sized to maybe as tall as a mountain, but that's probably as large as they'd get."

Hiashi, Yuugao and Sarutobi looked at each other. It was Hiashi that spoke up. "A Bijuu?"

Rein blinked, "Bijuu?"

Sarutobi coughed. It was somewhat sensitive information, especially concerning their company. "We currently know of up to nine Bijuu, demons that roam the lands. The only ones we actually have some form of information about would be the One-tailed Tanuki, the two-tailed Nekomata, and the nine-tailed Kyuubi."

"Huh, they take the form of animals?"

Sarutobi nodded, "Yes, though their powers vary. The Nine-tails was capable of summoning tsunamis and earthquakes at will."

Rein shook her head, "Hm, no, these things are more demonic in nature. The book oddly enough knows at least some of what these things are. They grow in size, from small, feeding on bacteria and then plants, mammals... people. Then they start to grow exponentially and start to showcase powers they never had. Their lower, smaller forms are more grotesque..." she explained. The holograms of the creatures were appearing. Naruto looked disgusted.

"So why don't we just kill them before they become a bigger threat?" Hiashi asked.

Rein smiled, "That's exactly the plan. However, we are just three people. Even when the rest of us come from the book, we'll only be six. There are nine billion people on this planet. And every single person is capable of being food for these things…"

Sarutobi's eyes widened. Hiashi also seemed to be catching onto what he was thinking, and even asked what was now on his mind.

"Just how long does it take these things to grow?"

Rein beamed, they were getting it. "It takes about four to seven years for one to reach the point where they can do significant harm to a defended region."

Yuugao looked surprised. "So that's why you asked that ramen girl..."

Sarutobi smiled, "You certainly think big for a girl your size..."

Rein smiled, despite the size comment, "We were lucky to be transported to a world with such powerful humans. Our old master was a civilian before she received the book, and she destroyed several fully grown ones on her own. However, we're in a village filled with ninja who know all about fighting and have lived through fighting. I'm slowly cracking the extremely old files of the tome, uncovering weaknesses for these beasts that we can train to ianyone/i."

Sarutobi stood up, looking down at her. "Are you suggesting that…"

"Yes. Instead of combating these things by ourselves, we're going to train a generation to be a deciding counter-offensive to them."

* * *

"_Please do not touch me._"

Orochimaru almost scoffed at the yellow, talking triangle. The girl was in another room, being taken care of by his head medic-nin and his apprentice, Kabuto.

Once again he poked the device. He was using a rather long stick, as he definitely learned his lesson to trying to prod the thing open with his bare hands.

"_Please stop that._"

It wasn't terribly dignified, but he'd rather use caution around this thing. It was made of an odd alloy, none that he could identify at the least. It didn't have an ounce of chakra, it seemed to be a natural yellow, and it didn't seem to have any moving parts as far as he could tell.

His thoughts wandered to the girl. He was doing some personal… 'talent searching' as he called it for a new set of elites he wanted to form. It hadn't been going too well, he mused to himself. A boy with an interesting bone-based bloodline, so far, even though it seemed that he was terminally ill. He didn't see this girl until after that unfortunate attack on the town, but her talent was almost clear to him. And it seemed that she brought something interesting with her.

"_Please remove that item from my body_."

He absently lifted the stick off of the… thing, before returning to his own thoughts.

'Hmm, just two so far, and now that these things have appeared, I need to either find more or train these two several times harder… but his illness will probably become a deterrent to him…'

Orochimaru's thoughts wandered on as he absently poked the annoyed devicer.

* * *

It was a pretty peaceful night. Was would be the best term here.

"KATSU!"

Then the forest disintegrated into a beautiful symphony of red and white.

'Hm, I should write that one down…'

She flew up on a white, artistically unrealistic bird, narrowly avoiding the creature as the forest under it exploded.

The beast was falling down into the flames, but seemed unharmed by it.

Deidara, missing-nin of the Hidden stone was starting to get annoyed. Most of her bombs were not working on this persistent, ugly ithing./i.

She was a master of explosives, if she would say so herself. Her particular bloodline involved a special clay-like material that, when charged with her chakra and hers only, would explode on command. This, combined with a solvent that improved the detonation that was created by literal mouths in her hands, gained her the nickname of "How can you be a ninja and be so loud!"

The whole debacle about blowing up the council chambers in Iwa was really a big misunderstanding.

She quickly formed several hand seals, as the clay bird she currently hovered with swooped up to avoid the creature again. It was persistent, if anything. It followed her for miles. She frowned, not really wanting to drop one of her favorite bombs on the disgusting mass of flesh.

She finished the last hand seal, a giant grey idol appearing directly under her, and above the creature. It immediately started to fall, hitting the thing in the head and interrupting its accent. She grinned as it and her special bomb fell down to the ruined forest below.

She smiled.

"Katsu."

She grinned as she stood in the center of the crater, a rather heated blush on her cheeks.

The mile-wide crater came out iperfectly!/i

She couldn't resist it.

"Hahahahahahaa! Take that! That was AWESOME!"

Her clay bird looked at her oddly.

She was too busy laughing to notice that the creature, barely alive, crawled out of the dirt behind her. If its expression was readable, it would probably be on 'incredulous'.

However, it saw a chance when it knew it, and made for her back.

Deidara blinked, pausing in her laughing as the top half of the creature flew over her head, leaking grey blood over her clothes.

"Eh?"

"Honestly, Dei, what did I tell you about laughing in the middle of combat like that..."

Deidara spun around, blinking as she noticed the large man wielding a huge weapon wrapped in bandages. She blinked for a minute, before her face lit up happily. "Ahh, Kisama!"

"That's Kisame!" He yelled. The large man, hoisting his massive sword to his shoulder, then grinned at her, "It's been a while. I think we should go, your little… party here probably alerted everyone on the continent… and the next one…"

Deidara grinned at him. "Oh, wait, did I get accepted?"

Kisame grinned at her, reaching into his cloak to pull out a smaller, identical one, black with red/white clouds. "Yep. And here's the ring too."

She smiled at him, taking the items before hopping back onto her bird. Kisame hopped on behind her, sticking to it easily with chakra, though being careful not to touch his sword to it. He learned his lesson last time.

"…Oh god that was so awesome."

"I get it already, just fly!"

* * *

I'm not truly satisfied, but it did come out pretty close to how I wanted it. I will probably come back later and add some more scenes to break it up a little.

See you guys in a week! Really! Honestly!

Really!


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